American translator Daisy Rockwell aka @shreedaisy on Twitter, describes herself as a “literary type” and an “escaped academic” but is best known as the English translator of Geetanjali Shree’s Ret Samadhi, the first Hindi novel to win the International Booker Prize.
She translates from Hindi as well as Urdu literature, and became an international celebrity soon after she and Shree won the International Booker Prize in May 2022 for Rockwell’s translation Tomb of Sand, published by Tilted Axis Press (the UK) and Penguin India.
In the past, Rockwell has translated writers such as Krishna Sobti, Upendranath Ashk, Khadija Mastur, and Bhisham Sahni. Tomb of Sand is now on the shortlist for the JCB Prize for Literature 2022 and the longlist for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation 2022.
In a brief interview over email, Rockwell answered questions about coming to terms with the adulation, her current and forthcoming projects, and the challenging task of time management. Edited excerpts:
How has life changed after you won the International Booker Prize for Tomb of Sand?
I have invitations to speak all over the world, I get to mentor an emerging Hindi translator — Vaibhav Sharma — through the UK’s National Centre for Writing, and my inbox is a disaster zone.
Are you planning to work on any other projects with Geetanjali Shree?
Yes, I am working on translating a collection of Geetanjali’s short stories and will also undertake a translation of her 1998 novel Hamara Shahar Us Baras.
What do you love about being known widely, and what do you miss about anonymity?
I love that people are reading my work, and that I have an opportunity to promote translation wherever I go. I do not think that I am a big enough celebrity to miss anonymity. It is not like the paparazzi are trailing after me through airports!
How does it feel to be on the shortlist for the JCB Prize for Literature 2022?
Fantastic!
What would you tell people who think that a Booker winning-book has an unfair advantage?
How silly! The book may have a Booker recognition, but it has never won a prize in India itself, neither for the English nor the Hindi versions. None of my translations have ever before been nominated for an award in India either. Unless, of course, you count our Amul Butter sammaan (Indian dairy brand Amul released a cartoon featuring Shree and Rockwell to celebrate the Booker victory). Maybe that gives us an unfair advantage!
Could you recall the funniest, weirdest, and most startling responses to Tomb of Sand?
Many people do not like reading reviews of their books on Instagram, but as a translator, I have a certain detachment, so I enjoy the full range of commentary. Some readers are just infuriated by the lack of movement in the plot during the first few hundred pages, as well as by all the digressions. The other day I saw one that said something like, “DNF. F this book, TBH. Nothing happens in 200 pages!” Tomb of Sand is not an easy book to read, and it certainly isn’t one that I would expect to be universally liked for that and other reasons, but because it won the International Booker Prize, many more people are attempting to grapple with it and DNFing (did not finish) it.
Tomb of Sand has also been longlisted for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation. How do you feel about this, given your decision to translate only women after you got fed up with the male gaze and misogyny in literature?
I am indeed thrilled about this. Awards like the Warwick Prize that showcase translations of women writers are so important.
Could you talk about some of the projects that you are currently working on?
So many things! I am finishing up a novel by Usha Priyamvada, Won’t you Stay, Radhika?, and I am also close to completing a first draft of Channa, which happens to be Krishna Sobti’s first novel that was first published shortly before her death. I recently completed a prose poem by Urdu poet Azra Abbas, called Sleep Journeys, and I have been working on some of Geetanjali’s short stories. And then I am also hoping to soon begin work on an Urdu novel called Nagari Nagari Phirta Musafir, by Nisar Aziz Butt, which I like to tell people is like Thomas Mann’s Magic Mountain meets George Eliot’s Middlemarch in the Northwest Frontier Provinces of Pakistan.
How do you manage your time when you have so many people jostling for a piece of it?
Not very well, I am afraid. But I try to keep protected space for the things that really matter: my family, my work, my mentee, and my cats…not necessarily in that order.
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