Who really wrote ‘Mother’? ~ Malinda Words

‘Mother,’ a Russian novel written in 1906 about revolutionary factory workers, has been translated into many languages. It has been made into several films as well. Bertold Brecht and his friends based their 1932 play ‘The Mother,’ on this novel.

Who wrote ‘Mother’? Maxim Gorky. Alright. That’s answered. The article though isn’t done.

Gorky himself didn’t consider ‘Mother’ his best piece of writing. That notwithstanding, ‘Mother’ is clearly the most important level he wrote before the Russian Revolution. Important as in influential. Not just in Russia but all over the world. It has for more than a century been a must-read for most left-leading young people. Even in Sri Lanka.

As mentioned, the book has been translated into many languages and in some cases more than once by different translators into the same language. In the case ‘Amma,’ the title of the Sinhala translation, it was Dedigama V Rodrigo who did the honours. He was THE translator of Russian and later Soviet literature. Thanks to him, Sinhala readers were able to enjoy a wide range of novels, short stories and poetry by Russian and other Soviet authors.

Of course those who did not know Russian or those other languages cannot really talk about the quality of translation. However, those students who in the Soviet Era studied in the USSR, were required to learn Russian and Marxist-Leninism and also had to read the classics, had the knowledge to compare.

Dr Udaya Rajapaksha, botanist and a keen student of literature, as well as Dr Piyasiri Pelenda, geographer and a translator himself, both colleagues at what was then called the Agrarian Research and Training Institute, had high praise for Rodrigo. Udaya offered the following caveat:

‘His translations were really good, but Chekov in Russian felt so much better that I could only wonder how exquisitely beautiful it must be to a Russian reader.’

This holds true for most translations. Even really good ones. Something gets lost, something gets added. It’s never perfect but that again one disregards the imperfections because you do get a flavour, you are offered slices of the human condition in light that persuades one to reflect.

This however is not about the worth or otherwise of transition and translations. It’s about authors. Authorship. And indeed ownership or appropriation.

I don’t know Spanish, so I have had to read Pablo Neruda and Garcia Marquez in their English translations. I don’t know Russian, so I had to read Dostoyevsky, Tolstoi, Turgenev, Chekov, Pasternak, Pushkin, Gorky and Aitmatov either in English or in Sinhala. I know that Rodrigo did Sinhala translators and that’s probably because he’s the only one who did so. His name wasn’t on the covers of the books he translated. It was mentioned on one of the inside pages. It was the same with the novels and short stories of Garcia Marquez and the poetry of Pablo Neruda.

It’s the same with the poetry of Rumi and other Sufi mystics as well as the poetry of Ghalib, Iqbal and Faiz Ahmed Faiz. I remember the names of the poets, but not all the translators.

This is not to downplay the importance of translators. I feel that Rodrigo, for example, hasn’t been appreciated as much as he should have been. Translators play an invaluable role, they open windows to worlds we are unaware of. They enable sunlight from multiple angles to dispel the various darknesses that envelop our minds and hearts.

Now some might say that a translation is in fact a new book altogether. It is, strictly speaking. And therefore, some may argue, equal credit is deserved.

Perhaps.

On the other hand, credit acquired at the cost of making the original author invisible, almost, is problematic. I am thinking of translations with book covers that have the translator’s name in such prominence that the name of the original author, even if mentioned on the cover, looks like a footnote, an afterthought.

I checked out some book covers of ‘Amma.’ The more recently published ones have Rodrigo’s name on the front cover and even these clearly indicate who wrote the original. Earlier version just had the title of the novel and the name of the author, Maxim Gorky.

Just check out the book covers of Sinhala translations of great writers who wrote in other languages. Check the font size of the author and translator. Assess prominence given to each.

I’ve done that and that’s why I asked: who wrote ‘Mother’? I am not asking who wrote the novels that are now in translation, in Sinhala and other languages, but pointing out that there’s something odd about giving the impression that the translator is in fact the novelist or poet or short story writer.

Ego? Misplaced sense of self-worth? Piggybacking on greatness? All of the above? I think some combination of these, to a great or lesser degree.

Dedigama V Rodrigo was an excellent translator. He probably obtained joy in the exercise of translation and delighted in the delight of the reader. He didn’t piggyback on Gorky or any of the authors he translated.

So here’s to Dedigama V Rodrigo. A great translator and man of literary integrity. He didn't claim ownership. He didn't appropriate or misappropriate. He didn’t write ‘Mother’ and would never have claimed even parity of status with Gorky, leave alone supplanting that exceptional Russian writer by way of tinkering with the book covers of the works he translated.

['The Morning Inspection' is the title of a column I wrote for the Daily News from 2009 to 2011, one article a day, Monday through Saturday. This is a new series. Links to previous articles in this new series are given below]

Other articles in this series:

A melody faint and yet not beyond hearing

Heart dances that cannot be choreographed

Remembering to forget and forgetting to remember

On loving, always

Authors are assassinated, readers are immortal

When you turn 80...

It is good to be conscious of nudities

Saturday slides in after Monday and Sunday somersaults into Friday

There's a one in a million and a one in ten

Gunadasa Kapuge is calling

Kumkum Fernando installs Sri Lanka in Coachella, California