Novel-In Translation-Malayalam
By M. Mukundan. Translated from the original Malayalam by Nandakumar K.
2024
What was the way out? You loved life as much as the sea loves the shore. Your grouse was that life did not reciprocate even an iota of that love. The thought of suicide had never occurred to you. How could someone with a lust for life end his own life? Instead, you began to seriously consider the option of taking a vacation from life and going somewhere else.’ Witness the sensitivity with which the author captures the angst of an individual even while preserving the dignity and meaning of life! This showcases the essence of the writer’s contribution to modernist sensibilities in Malayalam literature. On the part of the translator, it requires sensitivity to the nuances of words, tones and voices in the text.
By C.V. Raman Pillai. Translated from the original Malayalam by G.S. Iyer
The moral compass of the novel, expressed in the word ‘qualities’, is the key to differentiating Parukutty’s prince-like lover, presumed dead, and Padmanabhan Thampi, who is wooing her. This takes us beyond the legalistic question of who the rightful successor to the throne should be. Had Thampi been that person, he would still be deemed unworthy in the moral scheme that the novel upholds. In this sense, Marthandavarma is a profoundly moral novel.