What happens when a writer translates her/his own work? Does s/he have the liberty to edit it to suit a new audience? Does this become a new text by the author? The role of the editor and publisher is a crucial one. So how does one review a self-translation? When the author/translator acknowledges the help of another, especially a native speaker of the target language, what do we make of the intervention? Such questions come to our mind when we read the English translation of Kesava Reddy’s Telugu novella, Moogavani Pillanagrovi: Ballad of Ontillu. Mini Krishnan first introduced Kesava Reddy to the English reading public by bringing out the English translation of his powerful novella, He Conquered the Jungle translated by C.L.L. Jayaprada (Macmillan India, 1999). She now brings us Moogavani Pillanagrovi: Ballad of Ontillu, this time translated by the author himself. In translating this work, the author has taken the help of J. K. Snyder, who has also written a ‘Literary Overview’.
August 2014, volume 38, No 8