We had a unique translation opportunity at Sangam House this year with American poet Neal Hall’s request to have his work translated into Kannada while he was in residence. This allowed us to explore an entirely new way of engaging with the literary community in the city by bringing local translators and some Sangam House writers into direct and intense contact with each other. More importantly, it allowed us to bring Kannada into closer and more dynamic contact with Sangam House activities and give resident writers a chance to spend more time with local translators in a more intimate setting.
Using a workshop model that we have used before, we brought the poet and translators together for a weekend of work and discussions, each making the most of this direct and focused contact time with the other. Poems were selected by Hall in advance and divided between the participating translators. The workshop opened with Hall talking about his work – his language, his concerns, his context, his themes and images. The translators worked on their own but came together at the end of the weekend to share their work. At this time, common themes, ideas, vocabularies and forms were discussed, thereby creating a more or less unified voice for the poems in Kannada.
The weekend closed with a public reading of the poems in both English and Kannada.
Prof. Vanamala Viswanatha and Bageshree Subbanna.
Translating Neal Hall was supported by The Raina Family Foundation and The Jamun.