‘Heart Lamp’, a short story collection written by Banu Mushtaq and translated by Deepa Bhasthi, has been longlisted for the International Booker Prize.
For those with even a passing familiarity with Kannada literature of the past few decades, writer Banu Mushtaq needs no introduction. The 76-year-old has been a prominent Kannada writer since the 1970s, but with her latest short story collection Heart Lamp making it to the International Booker Prize longlist, she is now in the spotlight of a global audience.
Heart Lamp, a collection of 12 short stories, has been translated by Deepa Bhasthi.
“On the 24th of February, our agent said in an elated tone that the collection had been longlisted……I was stunned. I was wondering what I was hearing and how to take it. It was an emotional moment,” Mushtaq told The Indian Express .
“When Deepa read the stories, she was moved by some of them and would say that she wanted one story or the other to be included in the collection. She was a major decision-maker….I said that if she was so impressed by those stories, then they could be translated. In that way, we selected 12 stories,” she added.
Bhasthi, herself a writer, said the Kannada written by Mushtaq has some unique characteristics that mirror the way the language is spoken in Karnataka’s Hassan area. “There is a certain balance one hopes to achieve between keeping certain words which are very essential to the Kannada text while also making it so that a reader across the world does not find it too alien,” she said, adding that she would also take into account the sociopolitical perspective that the stories were written from.
A Karnataka Sahitya Academy awardee, Mushtaq was among those who translated Adil Shahi literature in recent years, having worked on 500 pages of Urdu literature archived at the Salar Jung Museum in Hyderabad .
Looking back on influences in her writing career, Mushtaq said, “At an early stage of writing, I used to be angry because of the injustices against women and the poor… how people are marginalised and victimised. I was in social movements like the Dalit and Kisan movements and the Bandaya Sahitya Sangatane…..all these movements we had from the 70s to the 90s. I also served as the state convenor for the Bandaya Sahitya Sangatane. There was a wave of social awareness that provided intellectual equipment to the younger generation.”
She added, “One would read heartbreaking stories about a woman or a farmer or a Dalit in the newspapers. These thoughts grew in my mind and I started writing about them.”
Bhasthi’s journey with translation began with the work of Kodagina Gowramma, who hailed from Kodagu, the same part of Karnataka she is from. “Her birth centenary was in 2012. When I started reading her stories, I wanted them to have a wider readership. Back then, I had no clue about the field of translation so I had to learn on the job. It also brought me closer to Kannada…I realised that when I translated, I was getting closer to my language and culture,” Bhasthi recalled.
For Mushtaq, this latest recognition comes with the hope that it will bring more positive attention to Kannada literature and its heritage. “Kannada has got a history of literature…of more than a 1,000 years…..but it has not come up on a global venue. Now, it is high time it is recognised as a cultural language,” she said.
source/content: indianexpress.com (headline edited)