Chapter V

SELF TRANSLATION OF AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY:

ENTE KATHA vis-a-vis MY STORY

KamalaDas's* autobiography EnteKatha (Kottayam: Current

Books, 1973) is written in Malayalam. The English version, My Story,

translated by the author herself (New Delhi: Sterling publishers,

1988), attracted the attention of the world and got translated into no

less than fourteen languages. She is a bilingual writer. She uses the

pseudonym, Madhavikutty for her writings in Malayalam. The validity

of women's autobiography in postcolonial fiction has been laid bare in

order to evaluate Kamala Das as an English translator in the light of

the relevant post-colonial translation theories. Her autobiography Ente

Katha (Malayalam) and My St01y (English) have been analyzed in

depth for the purpose of the evaluation. The origin of western

autobiography is often thought to be Saint Augustine's Confessions.

*About Kamala Das: Kamala Suraiya better known as Kamala Das, was born

on March 31, 1934, in Malabar in Kerala, India. She is the daughter of Y.M. Nair, a

former Managing Editor of the widely-circulated daily Mathrubhumi, and Nalappat

Balamoni Amma, a renowned Malayali poetess. She was married to (Contd ... p.2)
 209

The term autobiography is believed to have been first used by

William Taylor when he wrote that 'autobiography' is a better word to

use in place of "self biography". In the autobiography, the author

reshapes the past and recreates the past world in his/her own words,

colouring it with his/her own perspective. The autobiography was

essentially the public exposure of the private self.

K.Madhava Das at the tender age of fifteen. Like her parents, Kamala Das also excelled

in writing. However, she did not start writing professionally till she was married and

became a mother. She is famous for her many Malayalam short stories as well as several

poems written in English. The Keralite is recognized as one of the foremost poetesses of

India. She is also a syndicated columnist. In 1999, she converted from Hinduism to Islam

and changed her name to Kamala Suraiya. Some of her prominent works in Malayalam

include Mathilukal, Narichirukalparakkumpol. Manasi. Balyakalasmaranakal,

Neermathalam Poothakalam and Ottavadipatha. But to the non-Malayalees, Kamala Das

is known because of her English poetry. The most famous among them are Summer in

Calcutta, Alphabet of the lust, The Descendants, Old play House and Only the Soul

known How to sing. She was awarded the Asian poetry prize for her anthology The Sirens

in 1964. And the Kent's Award for summer in Calcutta in 1965. In 1969, her short story,

Thanuppu was adjudged as the best by the Kerala Sahitya Akademy. Her book on

childhood memories Neermathalam Poothakalam bagged the Vayalar Award in 1997.

She also won the Chimanlall award for 'Fearless Journalism'. She functioned as the

poetry editor of the Illustrated Weekly ofIndia for one year, from 1971 - 72.
 210

Post-modem ideology considers identity categories as mere

constructions that can only curtail one's progress towards freedom.

Post-modernists have insisted that identities should be subverted in

order to destabilise the norms that go into the creation of identity. In

post-colonial writing, identity remains one of the most urgently

debated topics. Moya opines that identities are important because our

understanding of the self will definitely colour our comprehension of

the world outside. In the words of Moya. "Our conception of who we

are as social beings ( our identities) influence - and in tum are

influenced by - our understandings of how our society is structured

and what our particular experiences in that society are likely to be".

(Moya, Paula, M.L. and Michael R.Hames Gracia. 1993, p.3).

Autobiography now has the potential to be the text of the

oppressed, the displaced, forging a right to speak both for and beyond

the individual. People, in a position of powerlessness - women, black

people have more than begun to insert themselves into the culture via

the autobiography, via the assertion of the personal voice.

The idea that the autobiography can become 'the text of

the oppressed,' 'articulating through one person's

experience', an experience which may be representative

 211

of a particular marginalized group is an important one:

autobiography becomes both a way of testifying to

oppression and empowering the subject through their

cultural inscription and recognition. (Anderson, Linda.

2004, p.104).

Kamala Das' s Ente Katha is her autobiography in Malayalam.

The author herself translated it into English as My story. Regarding

the circumstances of its composition the author declares in her

prefatorial note: "My story is my autobiography which I began

writing during my first serious bout with heart disease. The doctor

thought that writing would distract my mind from the fear of a sudden

death, and besides, there were all the hospital bills to be taken care

of." (Das, Kamala. 1988, p.v).

Thus the writer who attempts to define female space feels

compelled to provide an explanation for her work. Despite the public

outcry and social disparagement that the writer encountered she states

quite emphatically and rebelliously: "This book has cost me many

things that I held dear, but I do �ot for a moment regret having written

it. I have written several books in my life time, but none of them
 �16

linguistic untranslatability of the indigenous vegetation. In the TL

version we have:

Above all those structures like a green canopy hung the

leaves of the many trees that my ancestress Kunji had

planted during her honeymoon days. Large trees bearing

flowers or fruits threw scatter rugs of green shadow all

around the house where we played through out the day,

my brother and I. (Das,Kamala. 1988, p.12)

However the author's favourite Nirmatala tree is spoken about

many times in the T.L text. In the S.L text the author makes a passing

reference to the Nirmatala tree. Her pen friend Carlo is said to have

asked her: "ngniatala piikkal entu kot1tu taoikke kapiccu kotuttilla?"

(Madhavikutty. 1973,p.78) ( ATL)

In the T.L text the first description of the tree goes thus: "Near

the snake shrine was the rare Nirmatala tree which burst into bloom

every summer with large butter coloured flowers that filled even the

inner rooms with perfume." (Das, Kamala. 1988, p.13)

The second description of the tree is made in a later situation:

 217

The bhajans of Meera on my gramophone, amorous

cousins and the clusters of Nirmatala at the snake shrine.

(Das, Kamala. 1988, p.96)

A third time the author says that her pen friend Carlo reminded her of:

...the ancient Nirmatala tree which had at one time a

string hammock tied to its branches where I lay listening

to the gentle sounds of the summer afternoons.

(Das,Kamala. 1988, p.158)

On the author's return to Nalapat she caused to cut down all the

trees except the 'ancient' Nirmatala. The Nalapat House and the

'ancient' Nirmatala attain human dimensions and become symbols of

the loneliness of old age and the beauty of the irretrievable past.

In the chapter entitled, 'Return to Nalapat: Was my, 24-years­

old-marriage on the rocks'?, she says: "Nalapat belonged to me. By

abandoing it to the care of vulgar caretakers and managers, I had hurt

the spirit of the house. I HAD UNWITTINGLY SPILT THE BLOOD

OF ITS SPIRIT ..." (Das, Kamala. 1988, p.198)

Regarding the occupants of the Nalapat House the author says

in the S.L text:

 222

female counterparts in the West. The presence of unmarried women in

the Tharavad house could be read as an indication of the freedom and

sanctions allowed to single women in the Nair matrilineage.

Divorce, or separation, which was at one time a simple and easy

procedure - merely a question to be decided between the individuals

concerned and the elders of the family now became a societal matter.

Though the fact that the author's marriage had "flopped" was obvious,

it was not possible for her to initiate measures towards separation for

fear of disapproval, In the TL version she says: "If I had at that time

listened to the dictates of my conscience and had left my husband, I

would have found it impossible to find another who would volunteer

to marry me, for I was not conspicuously pretty, and besides there was

the two-year-old who would have been to the new husband an

encumbrance." (Das,Kamala. 1988, p.102)

This situation signifies the complete breakdown of the structure

of the Tharavad which had once extended security and support to its

women folk almost unconditionally. All the taboos of the patriarchal

institutions penetrated the sturdy walls of the Tharavad to bring about

its complete destruction, leaving the woman almost entirely at the

mercy of her husband.

 223

The narrative which shuttles back and forth from Nalapat to the

metropolitan cities of Calcutta, Bombay and Delhi, resonates with the

experiences of the cruel enforcement of patriarchal norms through

colonization. The author, Mrs. Das gives accounts of the racial

discrimination which the two children - the author and her brother

were subjected to at the European school in Calcutta. In all her

descriptions throughout the narrative, the author resorts to the use of

figures of speech like similes, images and metaphors. These devices

afford linguistic economy lent greater comprehensibility and beauty.

Both the SL text and the TL text mentions the difficulties faced by the

children, the author and her brother because of their dark skin. The

author remembers in the S.L version:

l}iyantrikkan vayyatta ..
kannunirum toliyute ...
tavittu

niravum eriue a skUJil oru L agIJ.Yayakkitirtu..... villiam

enna perulla oru iflglTsukaran
•• ..... ennotu

coticcu ..... ninakku kurekuti ve\uppayi kuliccukUte?

• •

spanjukon\u nalla pole uraccu kuVccal niyum nahale pole

velukkum.
• (Madhavikutty. 1973, p.21)-(ATL)

In the TL version, William, the Anglo-Indian boy exclaimed to

her brother: "Blackie your blood is red" the author says "We did not
 224

tell our parents of tortures we under went at school for wearing, under

the school uniform of white twill, a nut-brown skin". (Das,Kamala.

1988, p.2)

She gives another instance of the school authority's allegiance

to the British royal family in the S.L text:

ente ska}il annu tavi,tu niramulla varayi nanum en!e

jef!anum... untayirunnu!l.u ...prabhata prardhanayu!e

ta!attil pianoyint.e atuttulla curvarinmel briti�

rajakupimbattin!e oru vamachaya cit!am gil!u kii!tjli!!_u

..
tiikkiyirunnu ...riil" britaniya enna dezfya ganam patumbol. .
' -
itakkitakku talayuyarti .
hetmistress a .
patattilekku

nokka.runtayirunnu ...Varna viveCa.!].attin!e krauriyam a

sku!il veccapu euikku adyamayi anubhavapeJ�atum.

(Madhavikutty. 1973, pp.36-37)-(ATL)

In the TL text the same description goes thus: We raised, our

voices in song singing, 'Britons never, never shall be slaves', ... King

George the sixth, (God save his soul) used to wink at us from the gilt

frame as though he knew that the British were singing in India their

swan song. (Das, Kamala. 1988, p.3)

 225

While the SL version resorts to ordinary narration, the terms

used to wink at us, were singing their swan song in the TL version are

tinged with irony and satire. The colonizers had created in the author a

bitter sense of alienation. She was an 'inside-outsider' in her own

country. So when the author and her brother left the European school

to join the elementary school at Punnayurkulam near the Nalapat

House, it is with a sigh of relief that she declares ironically: " ...I felt

that I had died a cultural death and was getting reborn into another

kind of world where the hard eyed British were no-long my co-rivals."

(Das, Kamala. 1988, p.20)

The SL text presents the stories of some of the poems of the

famous Malayalam poet, Kumaranasan:

sneham bhrantm;iennum dihamav.ennum vetauayapennum

orutapasyayav.ennumna!}annu manasilakki... divakarante

matiyil kitannu punciriyote marikunna nal,iuiyeyum

bhrantanaya kamukaaett�ti I
vannettiya ksTQitayaya

Inia�yum samayam ttee_!tj cennettiya upaguptaue .... nan

kaJJ�- (Madhaviku�y. 1973, p.41) - (ATL)

The TL readers have no intimate knowledge of Kumaranasan

and his poems so the author makes only a passing reference:

 226

...when she was alone in her bedroom facing the fragrant

Parijtam tree, the sat on the window sill and recited the

love songs of Kumaranasan whose poetry was

fashionable then. (Das, Kamala. 1988, p.14)

In yet another descriptive passage, the author narrates her visit

to the European cemetry at Calcutta. In the SL version we have:

smazana kalluka! mafiiiaccupoya palluka!e pole egikku

.. .
tonni ......paiancan pallukalute oru koittu.... piippal

piticca
• . .
zavakutrrahalute
' zikharafiale
• azlesiccukonte
• •

. .
raknikale pole abhimanikalaya boganvilla pul'lgulakal .
.
valarnnu nilkkunnatum . (Madhavikutty.
kanam. 1973,

p.25)-(ATL)

In the TL version the same place is described thus:

The tombstones were like yellowed teeth... I was the

only living creature there, but the red bougainvillae,

gaudy as spilt blood, that climbed the minarets, swung in

the breeze. The marigolds dipped their heads in curtsy.

(Das, Kamala. 1988, p.10)

 227

Though the manner of description in the two texts is slightly at

variance, the graphic descriptions lend colour and life to the

monotonous cemetery-the abode of the dead.

The author has described the death rites of the Hindus in the

T.L version. About her great-grand-aunt Ammalu's death she says:

.. .I saw her lie all wrapped up in unbleached cotton, on

the floor inside a large rectangle decorated with grains of

rice and burning wicks nestling in coconut halves... They

were already cutting down the heavy branches of the

mango-tree ... before dusk we saw the white smoke rise

up in the southern compound near the damson tree. (Das,

Kamala. 1988,p17-18)

The description is highly suggestive and precise.

The author's description on Love recurs in both the narratives

(SL and TL) In the first instance, Love is described in the SL text by

means of a metaphysical conceit.

It states: auuragamenna padattin!e artham s1vagum

'·

parvatiyum pole a�yo!}yaruktaraya a

dambatimara9u --
enne patippiccattu.

(Madhavikutty. 1973, p.31)-(ATL)

 228

Again, in the SL version she speaks of a dead poetess to whom

love was a religion:

sneham matamakkiman_iya a sundariyute capalamaya

atmavayirikkaQ.Qm a zavakkalaruyute mel

. . -
otikkaliccirunnate. (Madhavikutty. 1973, p.25)- (ATL)

In the TL version the author remarks: "I sensed for the first time that

love was a beautiful anguish and a thapasya ..." (Das, Kamala. 1988,

p.14)

Later the author glorifies Love as a kind of beautiful religion of

which sex is a part. She confesses: "I was looking for the one who

went to Mathura and forgot to return to his Radha. " (Das, Kamala.

1988, p.171)

Thus the author lives simultaneously in two worlds, the actual

world where love usually is a synonym for lust, in her words, "skin

communicated love" and the mythical world of Vrindavan. She later

concretizes Love and explaines metaphorically: "Like alms looking

for a begging bowl was my love which only sought for it a

receptacle." (Das, Kamala. 1988, p.118)

 229

The author's reflections on the decrepitude of old age is imaged

in her friend Shantu's grandfather. When the author as a young girl

approaches the old grand father:

addeham oru kolatintte .

. . mukhacchayayulla .
. mukham kotti
'.

ClflCCU...
,,, .
zantuVJJhte marattilekku kaiyetticcu

jambakkaka! pa[iccu tinnukonfe nmt manakonaka!

..
ketti... (Madhavikutty. 1973, pp.32-33)-(ATL)

In the TL version we have:

His face was narrow like a mountain goats....her

grandfather lifted his head and chortledHis vacant eyes

and the laughing mouth frightened me. (Das, Kamala.

1988, p.55)

Side by side with this bizarre image of old age is placed a rich

description: "Reaching out to touch the ripe jamun sprinkling the

treetop with ivory, I prayed to God to make me rich enough to live in

an old mansion full of statuettes and silver and lace"

The description of old-age closes with the author's

philosophical meditations on the old: "The old are destined to be

dumped like unwanted luggage, bits of unfashionable junk, and left to

 230

perish ... prayed to God that I would not meet with her fate but die

early while wanted and cherished." (Das, Kamala. 1988, p.142)

The author also selects grotesque and bizarre metaphors for her

description. About her lesbian admirer she says: "Her skin was

bronzed with the sun. She was like an animal that had exposed itself to

the magnificent fury of the seasons, the suns, the rains and the harsh

dry winds that sweep the sands of the deserts." (Das, Kamala. 1988,

p.78)

The author ruminates on widowhood in both the narratives. She

remembers what her grandmother said to her once about widowhood:

bhartavu mariccal oru stri dasiyayi tirum (Madhavikutty. 1973, p.45).

Besides this remark, widowhood is hinted at in both the narratives.

The young widow who had once figured in the famous Bhowal

Sanyasi case is pictured. In the SL version the author says about the

young widow:

a stri vidhavayute •
velutta
I
sari cutti udyanattil

- .
irikkunnatu... oru sinima kanumbolatte unmezavum -
- ..
kautukavU:m enikku attaram kaiccakal untakkittannu.
. ..
(Madhavikutty.1973,p.32)-(ATL)
 231

In the TL version we have:

The widow wearing plain white, flitted about like an

aging snow white in the garden where roses of several

colours grew (Das, Kamala. 1988,p.53)

The metaphor of Snow White from Grimm's fairy tales has not

been brought into the SL text due to the unfamiliarity of the western

fairy tales among the Malayali readers. The use of the transferred

epithet, aging Snow-White envisions in the minds of the readers the

stigma attached to widowhood.

The author wrote her autobiography at a time when all her near

and dear ones feared of her sudden death. The last chapter of My story

entitled: I have ceased to fear death-reveals that challenging the

power and inevitability of death is an exercise in futility. While in the

hospital following a serious heart ailment, Mrs. Das says: "There was

a No Visitors Sign on my door which kept even death away, although

I dreamt one afternoon that it came to me disguised as a wood pecker

and began to peck at my bones. Then it changed itself into a

waterfowl... while I was a child living there with my grandmother, and

 232

then it ruffled the rivulets of my blood, a little haemo-bird trapped in a

migrant's trance" (Das, Kamala. 1988, p.202)

The bird is a recurrent symbol in both the narratives (SL & TL).

The SL text opens with the image of a bleeding bird 'Blood' denotes

sincerity and bird is a metaphor for poet/writer. In the TL text, the last

days of the author's great grandaunt is described thus: "This cry

agonized as a tortured bird,s was the last sound she produced in her

life." (Das, Kamala, 1988, P.17).Vallathole, the famous Malayalam

poet and writer is described "...And floating above the hum like a

heavy-winged bird was Vallathole's full-throated laughter".

(Das,Kamala, 1988, P.33). The bird image is brought in to speak

about the poor working class women: "The poor women born of a

peasant stock were accustomed to a clumsy rapid mating like that of

the birds." (Das,Kamala.1988,p.84) When the author's eldest son fell

ill... he uttered shrill little cries sounding like a birds.

(Das,Kamala.1988,p.103). The authors life at a flat in Bombay is

described thus ..."living shut up in little nests of concrete in the air".

(Das,Kamala. 1988,p.96)

In the SL text the same description goes thus: .. . nalu

murikaJu{{a oru paksiku!e (Madhavikutty. 1973,p.57)-(ATL)

 233

The bird image closes with the author's identification with the

phoenix a mythological bird familiar in the west. In the SL text she

says:

tiyil VlQ.U cambalayati!}U ze{am Vil}\Um navajivagoteyum

kantiyot.eyum avirbhavikkunna phiniks enna aitihasika

paravaye
... pole nan VIQ.tum
' . . --
cambalil ninnu uyarteiunettu.

(Madhavikutty. 1973, pp.99-100) -(ATL)

In the TL text the author says: "Like the phoenix, I rose from

the ashes of my past". (Das, Kamala. 1988, p.170).The term, 'enna

aitihasika pa!.ava' has been omitted in the TL version as the readers

are all too familiar with the phoenix.

Though colonization had broken up the matrilineal set up, the

author conveys the fact that Kerala can boast of having preserved its

age-old customs, traditions, rituals festivals and fine arts. No auto

biography is complete without an account of the traditions, culture and

customs of the land. The author has enriched the TL text with

descriptions of the festivals, culture, customs and traditions of Kerala.

In the SL text, the author has made only passing references in certain

instances and in certain others they are left unmentioned as they are

redundant to the Malayalee readers. The TL readers get a glimpse of

 234

the Ekadasi festival through the author's great-grand-aunt Ammalu's

eyes: ". . . . Went out only to attend the annual Ekadasi festival of the

Guruvayoor temple. Sitting concealed... she watched the procession of

caparisoned elephants which thrilled her. The tattoo of the temple

drums and the wail of the sacred conch, she heard with a smile.

(Das,Kamala. 1988,p.17).

The 'oracle', an important character associated with the shrines

of Kerala plays his role in the month of Makaram (January-February)

at the Bhagavati shrines. The author says: "After the orchestra ended,

the oracle began to dance ... The oracle used to visit the houses of the

wealthy on some special days, escorted by the drummers and the

trustee's men." (Das, Kamala. 1988, pp.29-30). The Ottanthullal

dance is an art indigenous to Kerala. The author says in the TL

version. "In the quieter months, mainly during the rains, came the

Ottanthullal dancer with his drummer and cymbalist he brought his kit

of traditional make-up, the green Manola for his face, the powder to

redden the eye and the collyruim. In his bundle was the wide guilt

crown, the skirt of ribbons and the imitation jewellery."(Das, Kamala.

1988, p.30).
 235

The author has spared some space in her narrative to convey to

her readers the social structure and the caste-system prevalent in

Kerala... "The Pariahs who were by profession basket weavers and

sorcerers. Their women wore around their necks, strands of red beads

and left their breasts uncovered. The poor people approached them for

love-potions and for promise to destroy by terror their enemies.

Therefore the Pariahs were regarded as outcastes and kept at a

distance. But in the month of Makaram, between January and

February they attained a sudden importance for it was the month set

aside for the worship of Kali to whom, being aboriginals, the Pariahs

were dearly beloved." (Das,Kamala. 1988, p.29).

Regarding another important festival of the Keralites-Vishu, the

author remembers what her grand mother said: vi�uviyu vara11-am, fto

(Madhavikutty. 1973, p.61). -(ATL).In the TL: You will come for

VJSHU (the Kerala New Year) in April, wont' you .... ? (Das,Kamala.

1988, p.113).The Kerala New Year in April is the author's

explanation of VI SHU to her TL readers.

An ardent spokesperson of women - the dispossessed and the

marginalized - the author Mrs. Das, sees womanhood as the symbol

of tolerance and protection. Though women have been displaced

 236

through colonization, Kerala has retained some of the festivals and

rituals which belong exclusively to women . In the TL version the

author speaks about the Thiruvathira Festival: ... "it was the month of

December the time Thiruvathira, the water festival which the virgins

and the married woman celebrated by plunging into the cold ponds

two hours before the dawn, to splash about and sing ... After the bath

and the water games, the women sat around bonfires blackening their

eyes with collyrium and decorating their brow with sandal paste and a

dot of black '"Chanthu", made out of burnt rice. Then they swung on

the long bamboo swings tied from all trees to warm themselves and

went home to eat a breakfast of arrow root pudding, banana and tender

coconuts. . . . The observation of Thiruvathira was expected to make

women more beautiful. This was a festival for the worship of

Kamadeva the God of Sensual love." (Das, Kamala. 1988, pp.133-34).

In the SL text the most important festivals of the Malayalees of

Kerala - Onam is referred to just once. The T.L text has left the

festival unmentioned. However the author had laid bare before her T.L

readers, a traditional Malayali lunch. Many terms in the description

have been transliterated: "... the lunch, A traditional Malayali feast,

was laid out in all its glory. There were the usual dishes, the Kalan,
 237

the Sambar, the Olan, the Aviyal, the Elissery, and the condiments of

mango and lemon." (Das, Kamala. 1988, p.80).

The Kathakali, another art form of Kerala was staged in the

houses of the wealthy on special occasions. In the T.L the author says:

"On the night after the wedding there was to be a Kathakali show for

which the best players had been brought from Kalamandalam". (Das,

Kamala. 1988, p. 87).

Each and every stage of a girl child's life ts observed by

festivities. The author says in the TL version:

When a Nair girl menstruated for the first time she was

made to sit on a black rug covered with white mull for

three days ... she was allowed to wear all the jewellery

she possessed and given a gleaming brass mirror to hold

before her face. On the fourth day... she was given a

ceremonial bath. Afterwards the women blackened her

eyes with collyrium, decorated her brow with sandal

paste, her cheeks with raw turmeric and her lips will

betal. A feast was ·given to all in the village where the

women danced the Kaikottikali and the young men had a

 238

chance to see the girl now turned eligible for marriage.

(Das, Kamala. 1988, p.140).

When the author Mrs. Das, grew as a child at the Nalapat House

says: "I was trained to decorate the porch with paddy and coconut

blossom for the oracle's visit and to welcome him in the traditional

way leading him in with a lighted votary lamp. I learned to light the

temple lamps and the many oiled wicks which had to be placed every

evening at several spots around the house to honour the Gods of

directions." (Das, Kamala. 1988, p.30)

In the SL text the festivals have been condensed to one single

paragraph:

onakkalattu puvattikalil
• pukka! zekharikkanum

piikka!amorukk- a12um karki\akattil sribhagavatikku

vekkanum dharmakkarkke anyum nellum van

orukki veykkanum mattum nan paticcu veccu.

(Madhavikutty. 1973, p.44) -(ATL).

Another tradition bound description which occurs in both texts is the

feast conducted for the poor. In the SL text we have:

 239

benjil ente atuttu irikkar.ulla velu enna ku!!i orikkal

nanalute
• • vittil midhuua massattil piiratam nalil

·natatt<1£U!!a kanfii pakarccayil pankukoHan ccan_iyumayi

vannetti. (Madhavikutty. 1973, pp.41-42)-(ATL)

In the TL version: On birthdays we used to organize a beggars' feast

for which Velu used to come (Das, Kamala. 1988, p.20 ). Due to

linguistic untranslatabiltiy, the phrase midhuna mlissattil piira(am

. -
nalil' and the term kanni pakarccayil in the SL have been replaced by

beggar's feast in the TL

Through out the passages in the TL version, the author has not

sought after the paraphrasable material content that can be translated

straight forwardly. Instead she has taken pains to create a readable

TL text, avoiding the stilted effect that can follow from adhering too

closely to the SL syntactical structures. A reader-friendly author, Mrs.

Das creates a close rapport with her readers.In the SL text she says:

pattu vayassu mutal eiutittutaniya

•• •
kadhakal• ninalil pa/arum vayiccu

kkcu:zum. (Madhavikutty. 1973, p.15).-(AIL).

There is no one to one resemblance in her descriptions in the two

narratives. What is seen at work in the TL text is the complex process

of transcreation. Even in her descriptions of Nature it is the

 240

comprehensibility of her readers that is taken into account. In the SL:

text the author presents a Nature description:

mut,t_attu ban_min!an ka!ikkauoru pultakiJi mailanji

nLruttiya velikal
.
vanvanyay1
. . va!arttiya
IDUJlCCU

kazittumbaka! ravile patinonnu maQ.iyute ve!iccattil

parannu katikkunna mannappa!t#al. .. (Madhavikutty.

1973, p.71). -(ATL).

Images are taken from the every day surroundings of Kerala.

Indigenous descriptions have been domesticated into the TL text, for

instance: ". . . and it was possible to catch sight of the snakes that

lived in their many crevices, sticking their crusty heads out to hiss at

passersby. Lining the walls were the hibiscus plants with their rugged

roots and the blood, red flowers." (Das, Kamala. 1988, p.164 ).

In yet another description, the flora not familiar to the Malayali

readers are either omitted or explained in a detailed manner:

Birch enna uyaramulla marahal avitiviteyayi valarnnu

- , • fll '

. -- .
ninnirunnu. itattubhagatthu kuttikkntayirunnu. . . enikku -
- .. .
perariyan vaiyatta · pala kattu pukkalum avite valarnnu
, . --
ninnirunnu... (Madhavikutty. 1973, pp.78-79). -(ATL).
 241

The same description is conveyed thus in the TL - Tall grey

birches lined the walls of the hotels, trees with a chalky white bark

peeling in layers and triangular notched leaves . . . I picked this hour

to walk to the woods where, besides the flowers I knew and

recognized the wild cyclamen, the pickerels, the mountain laurels,

narcissus and the exotic rayed lycoris. . . savage ones that smelt of

slaughter houses and of blood ... (Das, Kamala.1988, pp.130-131).

In the SL text the term: eQikke perariyan vaiyatta palakaf!u

pukka/um
• (many wild flowers whose names which I did not know) has

been written as the flowers I knew and recognized because the flora

mentioned are the ones familiar to the TL readers. In certain instances

images are made use of to lighten the horror of the situation. About

her granduncle the author says: ..."I looked in and saw with horror

the red hollow boils on his chest. They looked like start rubies. "

(Das, Kamala.1988, p.34 ).

In the following instance, the image of 'rubies heighten the

beauty of the description ... ; "we heard the children's laughter rising

from the valley and saw the red berries in the thickness glow like

rubies in the evening sun . .." (Das, Kamala. 1988, p.130).

 242

Many pathetic situations are clothed in humour. For instance

when the author's marriage was fixed with out her consent she says:

I would be a middle class housewife and walk along the

vegetable shop carry a string bag and wearing faded

chappals on my feet. I would beat my their children

when they asked for expensive toys..I would wash my

husband's cheap under wear and hang it out to dry in the

balcony like some kind of a national flag, with wifely

pride ... (Das, Kamala. 1988, p.85).

In another instance we have, ". . . I used to enjoycrossing the

Wodehouse Road to walk past the shops and seeing me always in my

brown khaddar saree, the shopmen and the drivers loitering around

mistook me for a comely 'ayah' and' whistled' at me. My children

looked too fine to be mine, whenever they walked with me, holding

my hand with their podgy fingers." (Das, Kamala. 9

1 88, p.12)
1 .

The irony implied in these lines cannot be left unnoticed:

Marriage meant nothing more than a show of wealth of

families like ours. . . there was nothing remotely

Gandhian about my wedding. (Das, Kamala. 1988, p.87)

 244

out the paints un mould the clay, let nothing remam of that

yesterday ... " (Das,Kamala. 1988, p.l 04).

About Delhi she says: "... all the Delhi streets were fragrant

and murky.I felt very young very lovely and delightfully carefree."

(Das, Kamala. 1988, p.162).

What she has to say about Bombay goes thus : "Then I

discovered with a jolt that I loved the city of Bombay and did not

want it to be hurt, ever." (Das, Kamala.1988, p.189).

A.N. Dwivedi in his study of Mrs.Kamala Das's poetry observes:

Mrs.Das is a poet not so much of the country side an of

the city. The city is an integral part of her existence and

she can't shake off its impressions and memories easily."

(Dwivedi,A.N. 1983, p.25)

She has lived for long stretches of time in such metropolitan

cities as Calcutta, Bombay and Delhi. It was her shift from the

sheltered life of the village that sparked off her poetic utterances. The

emotional centre of her early poems revolves around the shock she

received at the sudden exposure to the city life. Yet all baronesses of

villages are not as adaptive as Mrs. Das. About her mother-in-law

who came to live with her and the family in Bombay she says: "She
 248

The women portrayed by Mrs. Das are exemplary characters-

the embodiment of virtue, fortitude and chastity. In her portrayal of

women, she seems to be reinstating the fact that the subaltern

structures, supportive of the woman's role in society are broken down

by patriarchal values enforced by the colonizers. The woman who had

once controlled the whole family in the pre-colonial times is now

reduced to a subjective degraded point. In the words of Bruce King:

Kamala Das has more to say about the pathos of a woman

emerging from a passive role to the point of discovering and asserting

her individual freedom and identity. In an article published in 'Eves

Weekly' she pleads for "the return of a social order that allowed

woman to have more than one husband if she so desired." (Das,

Kamala. 1972, p.20)

There are two instances in the SL text where the author resorts

to the use of the post modern technique of magic realism. In the first

instances we have:

. .
atinu zezam analu cuvarukalil kuti vama zabalamaya oru

kho�ayatrayayi sri ' kri:�·.�anum kii!{:ykarum pazukka!um

pazukitakkalum
• savadnnam nTnantutani...

. .
kannukalataccittum
.. , . .
kanthamanikalute
 249

zabdam n�n kettu koNirunnu.(Madhavikutty.1973, p.16)

-(ATL)

In the T L Version Lord Krishna is spoken about through

ordinary narration. Most of the poems were about KRISHNA. In

another instance she says: "In my thoughts then, there was only the

beautiful the incomparably beautiful face of Guruvayoor's Krishna

and his smile." (Das, Kamala. 1988, p.103).

The second instance where magic realism is resorted to reads

thus:valare varsanalku fesam mukhattu tutirahalulla gandharva

I _. • I - • ••

pradima ente !royih rumilekku natannu kayari vannu. (Madhavikutty.

1973, p.51). -(ATL)

In the T L version: A large square with one pock marked statue

of a God at its centre. (Das, Kamala. 1988, p.71).The term Gandarva

Pradima in the SL has been substituted by the term statue of a God in

the T L. The terms Lord Krishna and Gandharva are linguistically

untranslatable and so they cannot be clothed in fancy. However the TL

narrative gets a touch of fancy by the presentation of the author's

daydreams and wishful thinking. About an outlaw of the author's

school who was punished for misbehaviour, the SL text says:

 257

text, Sassarine into 561 lexias (reading units) and classifies them

under five codes. Barthes in S/Z declares his intention as:

It is to give it the power to follow the capillaries of

meaning, to leave no significant spot without presenting

the code or codes that it may be connected to [ ... J

(Barthes, Roland. 1975, p.19).

The five codes mentioned by Barthes are as follows:

(1) The hermeneutic code or the story telling code. This consists

of all the units whose function it is to articulate in various ways a

question, its response and the variety of chance events which can

either formulate the question or delay its answer or even constitute an

emgma and lead to its solution.

(2) The code of semes of signifiers: This code deals with the

connotation of persons, places and objects

(3) The Symbolic code. The symbolic code charts the sexual

psycho-analytical relations set up in the text.

(4) The Proairetic code. This is the code of 'actions'. This is

derived from the concept of proairesis the ability rationally to

determine the result of an action.

 260

individual sentences form part of the total structure. With conscious

omissions alterations and valuable additions Mrs. Das has updated the

TL text. In her attempt to clarify obscure passages and references she

inserts explanatory phrases or sentences and above all, her confident

nationalism sees through.