Translating from English to Tamil
Sohaila Abdulai writes:
My book What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape is being published in Tamil, and I wrote a brief note to my future readers.
I’m delighted that What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape is finally getting translated into Indian languages, and especially thrilled that Tamil is the first one.
All I know about Tamil feminism is what I can read and hear in English, which means I am very far from being qualified to talk about it. I understand that very well, and do not want to fall into the same trap that too many English-speaking writers and thinkers do, assuming that my familiarity with the dominant colonial language means I know anything at all about other worlds. So I have no wisdom to offer, but I do hope that my words in this book, now in Tamil, will provoke you – women, men, trans people, scholars, fathers, teachers, doctors, husbands, sisters, farmers, everyone who cares to read them – talk and think about rape and rape culture in a deeper way, and make new and surprising connections.
Luckily for me, Manasi Subramanian, my English-language editor at Penguin, and Srividhya Venkatesan, my translator, had plenty to say. Manasi wrote, “Tamil feminist thought at the moment is being shaped by younger writers working at the intersections of caste, gender and labour: resisting savarna, feminism, reclaiming sexuality without sanitizing trauma, pushing against the NGO-industrial tone of English-language discourse.” Sounds like an exciting moment! Thank you for picking up this book and letting me be a part of it.
Srividhya told me a bit about what it was like to take my words in English and find their most suitable counterparts in Tamil. Just choosing which word for “rape” to use sets the tone for the entire book. Part of the trauma of rape is losing control, and for me, after working so hard on saying what I want to say, not being able to read the various translations is about as out-of-control as it gets. I have to trust Srividhya, along with her fellow translators – Dutch, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish, Ukrainian – to do it justice. I’m sure they all have, and I trust that what you hold in your hands is a book that speaks to you in my voice.
You’ll read about some of the worst things that people endure, and also about how magnificently we can cope. You’ll read about birds, parents, wounds, dentists and the power of love.
Here's a fun tidbit: this is not my first book to be translated into Tamil. Long ago, I wrote a series of children’s books starring an old woman and a monkey, set in various locations, dealing with issues of women’s health and sexuality. We did a Tamil version, and were most amused as it was much thicker than the others (English, Hindi, Marathi). You Tamil readers and writers are lucky and rich; you have many more words than the rest of us.
The Dalit Tamil writer Bama writes in her memoir Karukku about a battle between two communities: “The Palla boys stood at the edge of the lake and flung stones. The Parayar threw stones in retaliation, and it really turned into a pitched battle. Some of the more daring women from the Parayar community took idli steamer lids to fend off the stones that were aimed at them, and joined in the fray.”
Idli steamer lids as shields; you use what you have. I have my words, and now they are yours to use as you wish.
Sohaila Abdulali is the author of several books, including What WeTalk About When We Talk About Rape. She is currently writing a book is about women, land and belonging.
