Old Tamil Poetry

Some questions I have been asked

1. Are you a Tamil scholar/expert/academic?

No, definitely not. I studied in English medium schools in various towns of Tamil Nadu. I learned Tamil only as a language, it wasn’t my medium of education. However, all my initial fiction reading was in Tamil. I read my first English book only when I was 13. My translations are part of my self learning of classical Tamil literature.

I am an Engineer by qualification. I have worked as an Engineer, Ship Chandler and now am a business owner. I have never been a teacher / academic. The beauty of Tamil is it is a living classical language, so it is easily accessible to any Tamil speaking person if he is willing to put in effort.

2. Why have a separate twitter account for translation? Why not post it in your personal account?

A separate account creates a focused brand. If I post in my personal account, it will be diluted with my personal tweets. In the polarized world we live in, my politics (I identify myself as a Liberal atheist) may not be appreciated by those who follow me only for translations. So I thought it is better to keep the accounts separate.

3.How do you choose which poem to translate?

Purely on random basis. Sometimes I select poems in line with current news events. I try to mix and match slice of life poems, aphorisms, epics and so on so that there is no monotony.

4.Why not translate in chronological order, finishing one anthology before moving on to the next?

I tried to translate Kamba Ramayanam in 2013, but couldn’t make much progress because the monotony got to me. I lack the perseverance to stick to one project. By this method of mix and match, I myself don’t know what I will be translating tomorrow. So it keeps the interest going, for me and the readers.

5.Where is your source material from?

The original poems I take from Tamilvu.org site. It is a treasure trove for Tamil literature and one of those instances where a government organization does real good.

The translations are done by me.  (Yes, I still get this query). For commentaries I rely on Tamil commentaries from Tamilvu site as well as blogs. There are many Tamil blogs that have detailed commentaries. For dictionary, again I use the Madras University Tamil lexicon in the Tamilvu site.

6.Do you think your translations are good? Why waste time?

Sangam Poetry has many translations off line and online. Thirukkural has been translated countless times. Other works have been translated in bits and pieces. So it is not like I am the first one to do this. I am my worst critic. I am aware of my drawbacks. I would like to have skills like Vikram Seth and translate metrical Tamil poetry into iambic pentameter verse. But I don’t have such skills.

I read somewhere that “you have to be willing to be bad at something before you become good at it”. That’s what I am doing. I am putting myself out there, warts and all, and trying to improve.

7. How do you find time? 

I don’t watch TV much. That frees up a lot of time. I do steal time from my family, but they have reconciled to that a long time ago. My other reading has suffered a lot since I started this project.

8. Why don’t you include Tamil commentary / audio clip for each poem?

I have a business to run too :-). This is a solo project. My skills are limited and there is only so much time I can spend. I did try recording my voice, but it came out horrible.

There are lot of Tamil commentaries available online –  தினம் ஒரு சங்கத் தமிழ் (KRS blog), 365 பா (Group blog), கற்க நிற்க (Palaniappan Vairam Sarathi), http://learnsangamtamil.com (Vaidehi Herbert), sangacholai (Dr. P Pandiaraja), http://vaiyan.blogspot.in (Sengai Pothuvan) are some I know. You can google and find more.

9. Why do you do reposts in twitter? Why not tweet only new translations?

To keep the readers engaged. This is one tip I got from twitter.com/sentantiq .

Also I am afraid that if I stop posting for one day, then I might drop the project altogether. So I impose a condition on myself that I have to post atleast one translation a day. Sometimes this leads to too much pressure on myself. No one is going to ask me why I didn’t post that day. Yet, I have to do it. In a way this project is a monkey on my back.

10. Are you bringing out a book anytime soon?

No. There is lot more to do before I can compile these into a book. Most of these translations are done last minute, sometimes while traveling in a bus or train. They are like a curate’s egg, good in parts. I need to build up a corpus of translations and clean them up before venturing to publish a book.