Daisy Rockwell: ‘It’s very difficult to break through a zeitgeist steeped in misinformation, bigotry, ignorance’

American translator Daisy Rockwell.

American translator Daisy Rockwell, who won the International Booker Prize in 2023 for Tomb of Sand, her translation of Geetanjali Shree’s Hindi novel Ret Samadhi, is currently in India to speak at the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival in Mumbai, the Kolkata Literary Meet, The Hindu Litfest in Chennai, and the Jaipur Literature Festival. Her latest book Won’t You Stay, Radhika? (Speaking Tiger, 2023) is a translation of Usha Priyamvada’s novel Rukogi Nahin, Radhika? Edited excerpts from an exclusive interview with her:

(From left) Daisy Rockwell with her translation of Usha Priyamvada's novel 'Fifty-Five Pillars, Red Walls' (2021); Usha Priyamvada with Rockwell's translation of her novel 'Won't You Stay, Radhika?' (2023); Geetanjali Shree with Rockwell's translation of her novel 'Tomb of Sand' (2021).

How does it feel to return to India a year after your post-Booker festival tour in 2023?

I am excited! I am actually going to more literature festivals in India this year — four — than last year when I went to two.

What are you excited to do outside of your speaking engagements?

It’s a very tight schedule, with the non-lit fest time in Delhi taken up with translation workshops for the new South Asian Literature in Translation (SALT) initiative in a partnership between the University of Chicago’s Delhi campus and Ashoka University. I’ll be talking about SALT at the Jaipur Literature Festival and Kolkata Literary Meet, along with Jason Grunebaum, Daniel Hahn and Arunava Sinha. If I have a single moment to myself, I’d like to fill it with dosas and poking about bookshops searching for Hindi and Urdu literature.

Tell us about the Indian translators you are mentoring. What support do you offer?

My first official mentee, through the UK’s National Centre for Writing Saroj Lal Hindi Translation Mentorship, was Vaibhav Sharma. The mentorship started in fall of 2022 and was supposed to last for six months, but we are still going strong. Vaibhav has a translation coming out shortly of a Hindi novel called Antima by Manav Kaul from Penguin Books. The English title is Under the Night Jasmine. Vaibhav is also working on a collection of stories and one novella by Anil Yadav. They will also be published by Penguin.

In just a few weeks, my next official mentee will be announced, this time as part of a joint venture between SALT and the American Literary Translators’ Association (ALTA), but I can’t share the name at the present moment. It will be a surprise! Then there are many other emerging translators whom I help as much as I can. This can mean helping them navigate attaining copyright permissions for their work, troubleshooting particular translation problems, or discussing big issue translation concerns, like questions of audience, creating a voice, how many Hindi words to keep in the text, etc. We need lots of good translators, so I try to help as many people as I can. There’s so much talent and capability out there!

You have been mobilising translators to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages. What is preventing more people from speaking up?

In the United States, it has long been taboo to call out the oppression of the Palestinians. People can even lose their jobs over it. That is changing now. Even though public statements may seem ineffective at stopping the bombardment of Gaza, changing the pattern of public discourse about Palestine is very important. If we raise our collective voices, they will be heard more clearly. Also, I don’t have a job, so no one can fire me for speaking out!

What are your thoughts on the absence of panel discussions on the genocide in Palestine at Indian literature festivals?

I think it’s sad. India has traditionally been a strong supporter of the Palestinian cause because Indians know colonialism when they see it. Unfortunately, in the current political climate, people are fearful about speaking out on political topics, and it takes courage to break through that silence. I am sure many festivals worry they would be rocking the boat if they addressed the issue head on. But silence is a form of assent, and there is too much silence these days.

Geetanjali Shree's novel 'Hamara Shahar Us Baras', being translated by Daisy Rockwell.

You have been translating Geetanjali Shree's novel Hamara Shahar Us Baras, based on the rioting that followed the Babri Masjid demolition. With the current political climate in India, how do you think it will be received?

I hope it will break through some of that silence I mentioned earlier. Misinformation and a lack of empathy for our fellow humans have been hallmarks of the past few decades worldwide. It’s very difficult to break through a zeitgeist steeped in misinformation, bigotry and ignorance. Can fiction do that? I believe it can, because it takes us outside of prevailing modes of expression. When we hear a familiar story told in an entirely new way, our eyes and ears can open unexpectedly. Geetanjali’s mode of storytelling, as is well known by now, takes readers by surprise and turns even the most mundane household objects on their heads, forcing us to re-examine our prejudices and assumptions. This novel was first published 25 years ago in Hindi, but it’s now more relevant than ever.

Nisar Aziz Butt's novel 'Nagari Nagari Phira Musafir', being translated by Daisy Rockwell.

You are also translating Nisar Aziz Butt's novel Nagari Nagari Phira Musafir. To what extent is it likely to challenge stereotypes about Pashtuns among American readers?

That novel will only become known to American readers if an American publisher picks it up! Currently, it is slated for publication with HarperCollins India, but American publishers have not yet shown any eagerness to have their stereotypes challenged by Butt’s portrayal of a strong intellectual Pashtun heroine. This is a book that I like to describe as Middlemarch meets Magic Mountain in the Northwest Frontier Provinces. What’s not to love?

Does Hindi literature in English translation suffer from a marketing problem? What has your experience been like?

I think translation in general is poorly marketed, not just in India, but in other the US/UK as well. There’s this belief among publishers and booksellers that people don’t want to read translations because they think they’re scary or ersatz, and therefore there is no point in marketing them. If this idea was discarded in favour of a robust marketing strategy, views would change. The success of Tomb of Sand, and a number of JCB Prize-winning translations in India is certainly changing the way that publishers and booksellers view things, but there needs to be more! I would love to see bookstores creating translated literature sections, or translation tables, that would make it easier for readers to browse and discover. I would love publishers to promote their translators and give them their own ‘author’ pages on their websites. The tendency until recently has been to hide the fact that a book is translated so as not to scare away readers, but I think translation should be openly celebrated.