Vivek Shanbhag on Translation and on His New Journey with Hyphen in conversation with Kabir Deb

KD: Hello Vivek Sir! It’s great to have you onboard. What is the primary objective of translation and how has it become more important for the literary community in the present time?

VS: Thank you, Kabir. I am happy to be part of Usawa; the magazine publishes excellent work.

Translation is nothing new. The best examples are our epics, which have travelled across languages over centuries. However, the form in which they travelled was different from how we define translation today. In present times, when the world is so divisive, it is essential to understand ‘the other,’ and translations form the basis for doing so.

KD: Everyone has an objective behind doing something. Hyphen is an idea that holds a very interesting and important thought of bridging gaps between various worlds. How did it bloom in your mind? What makes language so distant and close at the same time that an entire publishing house became necessary for many languages to have a home and an identity? What is the aim of this venture especially when most regional languages are trying to be more rooted to their own territory?

VS: The idea of ‘Hyphen’ has been with me for a long time, rooted in my upbringing as an avid reader of translations. While I am a Kannada writer deeply anchored in my native tongue, translations were what broadened my worldview to include diverse experiences and thoughts. 

As the founder and editor of the literary magazine Desha Kaala, I commissioned translations from various Indian languages into Kannada. This role gave me a profound understanding of the sheer breadth of Indian literature, and that experience gave me the confidence to imagine Hyphen. Hyphen is a print magazine that will also maintain a strong digital presence.

Indian literatures are so diverse that the term ‘Indian Literature’ can hardly contain them all. Even so, there is great value in bringing editors together to offer mentorship and training. When we narrow our focus to a specific craft, the quality of the outcome naturally improves.  

There was a time when direct translations between Indian languages were common, but this practice has dwindled for various reasons. In the absence of these direct links, accessing works through English has become the most viable option. I believe Hyphen will immensely benefit both readers and writers. Personally, the experience of translation makes one realize how much our writing relies on the ‘scaffolding’ of our native tongue, the subtle resonances and cultural echoes that a writer often uses without even realizing it.     

KD: Translation, in science, is referred to as conversion of RNA into protein, the latter being the final product. In literature however, we find that the final product of translation often gets into the mainstream even when the original source stays restricted. Is Hyphen going to change this culture of keeping the creations distant from each other? Also, how do you think translators should operate to keep the source alive in the final product?

VS: Your question also presumes that English is the ‘mainstream.’ For an Indian language writer, myself included, the mainstream is the language in which we write. Even if you only consider the numbers, the market for a language like Malayalam is far larger than what a writer could expect from an English translation. 

A translation must maintain a profound link with the original text to evoke the specific sensibilities captured in the source language. This is possible only when translators possess a deep connection to both the target language and its literary traditions.

KD: Hyphen is primarily focusing on publishing books from multiple languages. Jerry Pinto in a conversation with Usawa Literary Review said that from a pragmatic perspective, the rise in translation is driven by awards. India, being a diverse language, has huge possibilities in the field of translation, but what would be the primary notion on the basis of which Hyphen is going to select works from various languages?

VS: Literary quality is the sole criterion for selection at Hyphen. Fortunately, we can draw from a vast pool of time-tested and acclaimed works across Indian languages.

KD: You focus on writing your original works in your own regional language. What are the changes that you get to see when the works get translated? Your recent story published by Granta A Measure of Martyrdom, criticizes the system and its hypocrisy by wearing a microlens. What are the things which became evident after it was translated and what are the basic things which go missing in the process?

VS: As I mentioned earlier, the process of translating one’s own work offers invaluable lessons in craft. It forces a writer to think what resonates across cultures and which human values can truly transcend language barriers. I don’t subscribe to the binary of ‘gain’ or ‘loss’ in translation; rather, I believe the experience of reading a translated work is simply different from reading the original, as each is rooted in a unique linguistic landscape. 

Incidentally, although it may read as a standalone story, ‘A Measure of Martyrdom’ is an excerpt from my forthcoming novel.

KD: Translators have been coming in abundance in recent times and they are getting the financial help they need for a project. But most of them come from the same stratum of the society – upper class. What do you think is the reason behind this miniscule operation? At the same time, there is always an issue about how the lifestyle of the translators does not actually go hand-in-hand with the people they are translating. How do you think a translator from the upper stratum of the society find relevance in the books which are written from personal experiences of oppression and poverty? 

VS: In India, English-medium education was long restricted to a certain class, though this is rapidly changing. Translations are most effective when the target language is the translator’s first language. However, I disagree that translators can currently earn a living solely through their translations. Because it remains a ‘labor of love,’ the choice of what to translate usually rests with the translator rather than a publisher. The landscape will truly transform only when we have translators from every layer of society and when more opportunities like Hyphen arise, where translations are actively commissioned and professionally supported.  

The second part of your question touches on a long-standing debate regarding the ‘authenticity of experience’, specifically, who has the right to represent certain lives. Setting that aside to focus strictly on translation, one way to bridge the gap in lived experience is through strong collaboration. By working directly with the author, or with someone who intimately understands the author’s world, a translator can capture the nuance and intensity that might otherwise be lost. This issue is not limited to experiences of oppression and poverty; it is a fundamental problem, a gap in understanding that can occur in any translation, regardless of the subject matter.

KD: If you have to explain Hyphen in a single sentence to our readers, what would be that one sentence? Also, how should our readers approach a translated work?

VS: Indian literature lives in its many languages; Hyphen brings that richness to the world through translation.

There is no specialized lens required to read a translation, nor should there be. We have long admired the masters without ever pausing to consider that we were reading them through another language. A translated work deserves to be engaged with on its own terms, with the same immersive intensity we bring to Tolstoy, Márquez, or Pamuk. 

KD: Could you kindly recommend some of your favourite books which have influenced your literary career and its choices? 

VS: It is a long list, and difficult to pin down my influences because they aren’t limited to the written word. I am deeply shaped by various folk and classical theatre forms, though it is hard to say where one ends and another begins. In literature, I am drawn to the stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer and Katherine Anne Porter, Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich, and the works of many Kannada writers.