Lalit Gupta
The English translation of selected Dogri short stories by Suman K Sharma represents a unique and special moment in Dogri publishing history. A book of high literary value, it has been published as a collaborative venture of Dogri Sanstha and Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board.
Tilted ‘Dogri Short stories’, the work firmly introduces Suman Sharma as a master translator who has come up with flying colors in a daunting and challenging task in which the exceptional and amazing talent is required.
Looking at the quality of the translation, it is beyond comprehension why the translation is kept out of the circle of creative literature. If we analyze the detailed account of problems occurring during the process of translation it will unravel the undisputed truth that the translation is a creative process. Furthermore to capture the vibrancy of one language into another requires monk-like devotion.
Not all the 27 stories in the collection are “prize stories”. But the editor’s selection certainly represents stories of leading senior and young Dogri writers like Ved Rahi’s The Prince and the Painter, Narendra Khajuria’s Funeral Rites, Bhagwat Prasad Sathe’s In Laws’ Reproach, Madan Mohan Sharma’s In Limbo, Krishna Prem’s Miyaan’s farm, Chhatrapal’s Memory, Lalit Magotra’s Hello Maya, Narsingh Dev Jamwal’s Snake Nest, Shiv Mehta’s The Sandals, O P Sharma Sarthi’s Dry Gunpowder, Bandhu Sharma’s Fire and Light, Raj Rahi’s The Inheritor, Inderjeet Kesar’s A Riddle, Ratan Kesar’s The Last Bouquet, Chaman Arora’s Continuum, Ram Nath Shashtri’s Thunder and Lighting, Jitendra Udhampuri’s Cancer, Nirmal Vikram’s Makoru, Om Goswami’s Two Worlds, Rajeshwar Raju’s A Point of No Return, Chaman Panthi’s Festering Wounds, Manoj’s Football, Shakunt Deepmala’s The Evil Jinnee, Shashi Pathania’s A Stranger Too Familiar, Champa Sharma’s Home to Heaven, Nilamber Dev Sharma’s My Son’s Father, and Desh Bandhu Nutan’s Poor Manso.
The stories with wide spectrum exhibit a diversity of form, style, and content. Prof Lalit Magotra, the editor of the volume has summarized the selected stories: ‘Funeral Rites’ is about suffocating exploitation that runs from generations to generations, the ‘Prince and the Painter’ that rues the suppression of the ruled at the hands of the feudal lord while a gifted artist, imprisoned as he is, in his own existential compulsions, can do nothing but look on helplessly. ‘Thunder and Lighting’, ‘Poor Manso’ and ‘Miyaan’s Farm’ calls shame on the unspeakable excesses perpetrated on the feminine half of the society when even female fetuses are not spared.; while the short stories ‘Continuum’, ‘Festering Wounds’ and ‘Home to Heaven’ expose women’s exploitation from different viewpoints, The stories of selfless love are ‘Two worlds’ in which poor family exhibits selfless love by helping a stranger or by the doddering grandpa of ‘The Bouquet’ who bestows the wisdom of the old and lonely on his grandchildren. Mirroring the struggle and strife of common man to eke out living are stories like ‘Football’ and ‘Fire and Light’, or the pain that quiddities of life bring about upon the unsuspecting: ‘Cancer’, and ‘Dry Gunpowder’. The stories which show that there are things which are beyond the ken of simple logic or commonsense. ‘My Son’s Father’ imparts a new meaning to closest of kinship or ‘The Sandals’ where a pair of sandals becomes dearer than life. Or the sensible man in ‘Hello Maya’ who goes gaga over what is real and is the virtual world of his memories of the long past. ‘Makoru’ of the eponymous story is a cripple, but when he is placed by the side of a busy thoroughfare, it becomes clear how deformed are the men around him who on a casual look appear so normal.
The translations by Suman K Sharma read well and the depth of understanding and delineation of human character makes one realize how much the educated Indian reader is missing by confining himself to the English language. What has emerged out of this conscious and well-planned exercise is a fascinatingly supple range of short fiction which brings an intimate, exciting and live touch to Dogri literature, what could otherwise have been a dry, academic exercise.
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