Aadyonto Manush
(Complete Man)
Anti-Uponyash Songroho
(Anti-Novels Collection)
One Pice Father Mother
(A Penny’s My Father and Mother)
Chetey Chushey Chibiye Giley
(Lick, Suck, Munch, Gulp)
Essays
Subimaler Biruddhe Subimal Ebong Ushkanimulok Onek Kichui Aapaat Bhabey
(Subimal Against Subimal and a Lot of Apparently Exciting Things)
Lohar Taar Baagh o Dorshoker Modhye Rokto Bhalobhashey
(Between the Tiger and the Spectator, the Barbed Wire Loves Blood)
Son and Murderer
Taamaaker Baajaar Bonam Euclider Chotushparsho Ebong Aro Aro Paaltikhaowa Ebong Aro Aro Ushkanimulok
(The Tobacco Market Versus Euclid’s Environs and Plenty of Turnarounds and Plenty of Excitement)
Play
Bhaitu Paathaar Ishtu
(Brother Goat’s Stew)
Graphical Text-works
Haar Mormori
(Clatter of Bones)
Guer Pnod Teen Jaaygaay Laagey
(The Shitty Bum Touches Three Places)
On This Translation
‘V. Ramaswamy knows the city of Kolkata as few others of his background do; he has worked intimately with its urban planning and in connection to its poorer habitations and settlements for years. In this regard, his choice of the reputed experimental writer Subimal Misra for translation is apposite – given Misra’s unflinching but mischievous gaze, his eye roving the more ragged thoroughfares of this city – and perhaps an extension of Ramaswamy’s deep search for a way of living without disillusionment, but also without illusions, in Kolkata. Ramaswamy has himself written, with great eloquence and knowledge, of the contingencies of existence in this city; and, in translating Misra, I think he has given a significant writer – as well as an extraordinary phase in Bengali literature (responding as it was to the upheavals of Maoist politics in a traumatized Bengal in the late sixties) – a new lease of life. I think he has found a language in these translations that is at once meticulously crafted and fluid – an urgent poetic vernacular suited well to Misra’s nightmarish but lyrical world, a diction at once fresh, urgent and readable. The Bengali language, with its remarkable storehouse of achievements, badly needs translators of excellence; in Ramaswamy, it has one. We can expect a great deal more from him.’
– Amit Chaudhuri
‘For those of us who grew up in the rich literary forests of what are called ‘vernacular’ Indian languages, it has always been a source of great pain to see wonderful works fall into the troughs of execrable translation before it can reach a wider trans-national and international readership. This curse has so blighted the different ‘bhasha’ literatures that often it seems better for a work to remain outside the massive tent of English text than be traduced and trampled just inside its periphery. V. Ramaswamy is one of the few exceptions working in India today – a translator who gives me hope. His understanding of Bengali culture has been deeply honed by years of dynamic interaction with Kolkata and Bengal. Alongside this understanding is an uncanny ability to grasp the inner cadences of different kinds of Bangla as well as the skill and courage that all really brilliant translators need to have vis-à-vis the language into which they are translating – in this case, English.
V. Ramaswamy’s translations of the Bangla master Subimal Misra’s short stories will, I’m certain, be regarded as a breakthrough in the world of Indian letters. Misra, a path-breaking modernist pushing the boundaries of both form and language, has for too long been kept from a discerning non-Bengali readership. He has now found in V. Ramaswamy an inspired partner to help his writing make the leap to English. It is, I hope, the beginning of a long and fruitful partnership between this translator and his chosen original language, a partnership that will show the way for other translators working in other Indian languages.’
– Ruchir Joshi
First published in India in 2010 by
HarperCollins Publishers India
a joint venture with
The India Today Group
Copyright © Subimal Misra 2010
Translation copyright © V. Ramaswamy 2010
ISBN: 9788172239329
Epub Edition © JUNE 2012 ISBN: 9789350292389
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Subimal Misra asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
This is a work of fiction and all characters and incidents described in this book are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental
All rights reserved under The Copyright Act, 1957. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins Publishers India.
Cover design: Sk Jan Mohammad
Author sketch: Hiran Mitra(courtesy of Jari Bobajuddhyo)
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