Interview | There needs to be much more support for and recognition of translators as co-creators: Jayasree Kalathil

London-based author and translator Jayasree Kalathil won huge praise for her translation of Malayalam author S Hareesh's debut novel Moustache.

London-based writer and translator Jayasree Kalathil won huge praise last year for her translation of Malayalam author S Hareesh's Moustache, originally published in the Malayalam language as Meesha. Kalathil, who grew up in Kerala, remembers a short story by acclaimed Malayalam writer Sarah Joseph as her first translated work years ago. The author-translator, who participated in a panel discussion on The Year of The Moustache on the opening day of the Jaipur Literature Festival online edition on February 19, talks to Faizal Khan about the process of translating Moustache and the state of translating in India.

When did you come on board as the translator of Meesha, the debut novel of S Hareesh?

I was asked by Rahul Soni at HarperCollins India to translate Meesha. I had worked with Rahul on a previous book, the translation of (Malayalam writer) N Prabhakaran’s novellas, Diary of a Malayali Madman.

What was it about Meesha that drew you to the translation, which was going to make the novel available to a huge audience beyond Kerala? Did the novel's subject of caste and gender play any role?

It is important to me that the books I choose to translate are ones that I enjoy as a reader first. Moustache is a complex story told in a playful, irreverent manner that is not bogged down by expectations of what a novel should be. As a reader, I am attracted to such storytelling. It is also important to me that I agree with the politics of the books I choose to translate. The novel deals with the toxic masculinity that exists in patriarchal caste communities, and how it affects caste and gender relationships as well as the nature and the environment itself. I liked the way Hareesh exposes the frayed edges of this strutting masculinity that assumes itself to be all-powerful but ultimately is ridiculous.

What was the process you employed for translating a work with a wide canvas of history, myth, politics and folklore? Was there any inspiration from the world of literature?

My primary guide is the text itself. Before I begin translating, I read the book several times to get a real sense of the author’s tone of voice. I usually don’t translate the text from beginning to end when I do the first draft. I choose certain sections and work on them until I am satisfied with the tonality and rhythm. To translate Moustache, I also did a lot of research and reading – I read up on below-sea-level farming systems, looked at various books and images of flora and fauna of the Kuttanad region, and so on. As for literary influences, the works of (Bengali writer) Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay and Ojibwe writer Louise Erdrich were at the back of my mind. But I try and avoid reading other works that might remind me of the book I am working on when I am in the middle of translating.

Moustache won the JCB Prize for Literature last year.

Does the controversy surrounding the novel, even a court case, affect you as a translator? 

As a translator, no. They do affect me as an Indian and global citizen as I think they were attacks on democracy by vested interests. They make me angry and disappointed.

The Kuttanad region of Kerala is a major element of the novel in a way many people do not know about a place beyond its incredible status as a breathtaking tourism destination. Your thoughts.

Place or land is one of the things that defines us as human beings. The idea of who is “at home” and who is dispossessed as well as the idea of how nature itself is dispossessed by human interaction makes Kuttanad – the setting of the novel – an important character in the novel. As a reader, it reminded me of Annie Proulx’s Wyoming or the relationship between land and people in Louise Erdrich’s works. Hareesh takes us to the underbelly of Kuttanad, beyond the bountiful land that we might see as tourists.

How long did it take to complete the translation? Were there any challenges you had to encounter during the process? 

The translation took me around eleven months. The main challenge was to find a voice that suited Hareesh’s way of storytelling, especially because the storyscape of Moustache is a masculine one that is quite different from my own writing voice. In terms of translating, I found the chapter about songs the most difficult. I had to rework it many times and can’t say that I am fully satisfied with it even now! But the book is written in a non-linear, folksy way with several voices and tones. This was actually very enabling for me as a translator because it gave me a lot of latitude.

Were you in touch with the author during the translation and did he extend any help or contribute to the process? 

Yes, I was. We spoke quite regularly on WhatsApp. Most of our interaction was around checking authorial intention, meanings of words and so on. Hareesh read drafts of all the chapters and gave me feedback.

The jury of the JCB Prize for Literature while giving the award to Moustache praised the translation as "fluent and energetic" and said you "convey the specificity of the context without missing the wood for the trees". It is a major award and big praise. Did you anticipate such a huge acclaim?

I don’t think anyone anticipates such honours while working on a book. I certainly didn’t. I guess I was really only concerned about transcreating the novel into English in such a way that it would do justice to the original and would be enjoyable to the readers. I am blown away by the reception and very thankful to the jury of the JCB Prize for Literature for the award and the comments.

What are you working on? Are you currently writing a novel? Any other translation projects with you? 

I have just finished the translation of a novel by N Prabhakaran – my second translation of the author’s work. It will be out in April this year. And I am working on a novel by (Malayalam writer) Sheela Tomy. As for my own writing, I am about to begin work on a non-fiction book to do with the history of mental health and anti-racism activism in the UK.

Where were you born and currently live? Could you tell us how you were first introduced to translation and what was your first translation project?

I am from a place called Kottakkal in Malappuram district in Kerala but have spent more than half of my life outside Kerala. I have been living in London, UK, for the last eighteen years, and before that in Hyderabad for nearly ten years.

I think, if I remember correctly, my first published translation was a short story by Sarah Joseph for a book on Kerala women writers edited by the late Dr V C Harris. After that I have translated short stories, essays and poetry for anthologies and magazines. My first book-length translation was a collection of novellas by N Prabhakaran – Diary of a Malayali Madman – which won the Crossword Book Jury Award for Translation in 2019.

How do you view translating from Indian languages today and its future? 

Translated literature – from Bengali, Marathi, Kannada, etc. into Malayalam - was very much part of my reading since my school days. Literature in English translation is still a large percentage of what I read. I think literary translation has really taken off in India in recent years, and I would predict a bright future for it. I do, however, think that there needs to be much more support for and recognition of translators as co-creators, and there is much more that publishers, award committees, reviewers and literary media in general can do in this regard.

Moustache was originally published in the Malayalam language as Meesha

Are there any particular translations in Indian languages and others that have been a major source of inspiration for you? Any translators you consider as your hero or model?

I will always be indebted to translators like P Vasudeva Kuruppu, Leela Sarkar, P Madhavan Pillai and others who brought literary works from other languages into Malayalam which, as I said, formed a large part of my reading in my younger days. These days, I read translations in English, and while I don’t tend towards hero worship, I greatly appreciate the work of translators like Arunava Sinha, Aruni Kashyap, Sukhmani Roy, Maya Pandit and many others who build bridges between languages and literatures.