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bject poverty, lack of education and
slavery are enough reasons for anyone to wallow in self pity. But this is a heartwarming exception. A boy
as young as nine years was drifted to many households as domestic help.
However, the rudderless life of this boy with just four years of formal
schooling found an anchor in the world of letters. His pastime later became his passion earning
him laurels in the literary world. Today, Kallarakottarathil Kunhappan Nair aka
K. K. Nair is a well-known name in both Kannada and Malayalam literary fields
as a bilingual translator.
The Sahitya Akademi Translation Award 2012 for Hagga translated by him along with Dr. Ashok Kumar to be presented on
August 23 in Chennai is yet another proud
addition to the glittering cap of this self-made man. The novel is the translation of Kayar, the Jnanpith Award winning novel of
the renowned Malayalam writer the late Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai.
K K Nair was born to Kunhambu Nair and Laxmi Amma in 1935 in a small
village called Arathil in Northern
Kerala. As he was the eldest of the six siblings in a family with limited
resources, he was compelled to take up menial jobs at many households at distant
places.
In due course, the fifteen- year-old boy happened to work for a
Malayalee family in Kotekar near Mangalore. It’s here where he was introduced to Kannada
script. During his servitude of eight
long years, he gradually learnt Kannada by reading sign boards, name plates,
headlines in newspapers. “Though
I slogged a lot throughout the day, my mind was free to think,” Nair says
reminiscing those days. He could write poems in Malayalam since he was
only 10 years and now he started penning poems in Kannada too. But his compositions were looked down upon as
plagiarized pieces. “People recognized
my literary prowess once Balabharati
section of Prajavani carried my poems,”
says Nair proudly.
That was the beginning of his illustrious literary saga. With just four
years of basic education in Malayalam medium, Nair mastered his mother tongue
Malayalam and adopted language Kannada as well.
He later went on to translate great literary works in both languages. Though
they are financially poor, the environment at home was culturally rich. “My
father’s rendition of Bhagavatha and Krishna Purana had a great influence on me. Perhaps, I was subconsciously
drawn into the beauty of words and mythology through those renditions,” admits Nair.
He was in his hometown for a few years. Young Nair with an insatiable
quest for reading would read many Malayalam publications. As he was proficient in Kannada and Malayalam,
he was hankering to express what he grasped in Malayalam into another tongue he
was familiar with. He chose Chinthavishtayaaya Seethe of Mahakavi
Kumaran Ashan for translation. Meantime, he landed a job as a packer in Manipal
Press and within a year he became monotype cast machine operator, the position which
he continued to hold for about three decades until his retirement in 1994.
While he was physically into his work, his subconscious mind was busy
creating verses. The 192 quatrains of Chinthavishtayaaya
Seethe struck him in the din of the monotype cast machine and it became Chintaamagna Seethe in Kannada.
His maiden prose translation was the novel Agnisaakshi of Lalithambika Antharjanam. Nair has also translated
acclaimed writer S K Pottekkatt’s Malayalam novel Oru Desatthinte Katha into Kannada as Ondu Oorina Kathe. Apart from
many novels and anthologies of stories, he has translated more than two hundred short stories from Malayalam
to Kannada which have been published in various popular Kannada dailies and
magazines. The stories range from that of the first short story writer in
Malayalam, Kesari Nayanar to the most recent modern writer Gracy. Thanks to Nair, Kannadigas are able to read
the works of the likes of M T Vasudevan Nair, Shankar Kurup, Madhavi Kutti,
Etumanur, Subeir, Mukundan, Balakrishnan, Surendran and Vijayan
in their mother
tongue.
Septuagenarian
Nair has currently translating Thattakam
of Kovilan.
He has translated M K Indira’s Phaniyamma in the same name into
Malayalam. The Kannada novels
Chandragiriya Theeradalli by Sara Aboobakkar and Sarasammana Samaadhi of Dr
Shivarama Karanth are translated into his mother tongue by Nair. He introduced
the works of Dr U R Ananthamurthy, Bolwar Mohammad Kunhi, K T Gatti and such
others to the Malayalees.
Initially poetry was his forte. He was composing poems both in Malayalam
and Kannada. The lines could come out
lucidly. “I don’t know the grammar of
poetry,” admits Nair. But his efforts seem validated when critics don’t find
any fault in them.
He was drifted to prose by a coincidence. The wealthy Brahmins of Sirsi
in those days, he says, would marry Namboodiri brides after paying hefty dowry.
Once a newly married man wrote a letter in Kannada to his in-laws in Kerala.
None could read the letter. “Finally, it
came to me and I translated the letter to Malayalam and drafted a letter in
Kannada in reply,” says Nair with a glint in his eyes. “And this became a
routine,” adds Nair. It was then Nair
realized that he was equally comfortable with prose too.
Words of appreciation from noted scholar Bannanje Govindaacharya helped
him to shed his initial inhibitions. Ishwaraiah,
the then editor of Tushara had many
stories translated into Kannada by him for the digest. Ishwaraiah’s trust in his ability made Nair
further confident. Dr Ashok Kumar too has guided him a lot and co-translated
many books with him. Thanks to Agrahara Krishnamurthy, Nair is translating
books of Sahitya Akademi from the past 30 years. “More than 3500 pages
of translated works of mine got published by Sahitya Akademi alone, which no
other translator is privileged to,”
claims Nair.
His works in both languages are brought out
by many publishers such as Sahitya Akademi, D C Books, Chinta Publishers,
Navakarnataka Publications, Pratibha Granthamale, Yashawanta Prakashana, Lohiya
Prakashana, Sapna Book House and Prabhat Books.
Obtaining the rights for translation from original authors was
hassle-free most of the time, but the frail Nair cringes with disappointment when
he cites a couple of instances where rights did not come easily or did not come
at all.
Honours
and awards
His literary contributions are duly recognized. Many have fetched him laurels and honours.
Nair got the Central Institute of Indian Languages Award for his maiden
translation work Agnisaakshi in 1989.
In 1998, Nair and Dr. Ashok Kumar shared the Karnataka Sahitya Akademi’s Best
Translation Award for Ondu Oorina Kathe.
In 1995, Nair was the member of the Senior
Advisory Committee of the Kannada Shyli
Kaipidi, a Kannada handbook of Style, for the Kannada University,
Hampi. His lifetime contribution to the
field of translation was recognized with Kuvempu Bhasha Bharati Pradhikara Award
in 2012. Despite bagging many
prestigious awards, Nair has remained humble as ever. “Frankly speaking, I’m happier when my works get
published than the awards that come my way, but nonetheless I accept the honours
with all humility,” says Nair. Writing for him is relaxation and readers’ appreciation
is a bonus.
Considering the bulging publications
nowadays, Nair sees bright scope for writers and translators. So what’s his advice
to the present breed of translators?
“The original work should be understood properly before taking up
translation. Then only you can give justice to the original work,“ opines the
veteran translator.
K.K. Nair lives a quiet and peaceful life with his wife Janaki in
Manipal. He made it a mission to educate well his children, two sons and a
daughter and succeeded too. His
autobiography Kunhappan brought out
by Kannada Sangha, Kanthavara, is no less colourful than the novels that he has
translated. He is a destiny’s child. Translation, for K K Nair was not a conscious decision, it happened
by sheer chance. The turn of events in his life has indeed benefitted the literature
aficionados of Malayalam and Kannada. Nair who made a humble beginning could not
have asked for more in life.
(The artile co-written with my friend Savitha Shantapriya was carried by
Deccan Herald on the 20th of August 2013)
