At the Asymptote blog Mahmud Rahman continues his survey of the odd situation, On the Dearth of South Asian Translations in the U.S. (Part II), this time getting reactions from translators about placing South Asian (Indian-language, for his purposes) translations in the US.
Some pretty discouraging responses -- and even the 'successes' can seem odd. New York Review Books picks up a 1995 translation of Basti, some twenty years later ? (Cool that they're doing Samskara too -- but, you know, not exactly a novelty .....). Then there are the recent Uday Prakash titles, translated by Jason Grunebaum -- The Girl with the Golden Parasol (picked up by Yale University Press, five years after the Indian publication) and The Walls of Delhi, picked up by Seven Stories after originally being published by the University of Western Australia Press. (Aside: now that The Walls of Delhi is out in the US, is anyone going to review it? Hello? Anyone?)
Interesting that one of the hurdles several mention is: "the absence of dedicated lists". I've been really excited about the Murty Classical Library of India at Harvard University Press, but perhaps/apparently what's really needed is a university press willing to start up a South Asian dedicated list. (Come to think of it, a Southeast Asian one would be welcome too .....) But apparently there's an: "institutional lack of commitment to South Asia within U.S. universities" (which, sadly, sounds entirely plausible). Maybe with an increasing number of Indian billionaires looking for some intellectual street cred someone will think to fund one .....
Some pretty discouraging responses -- and even the 'successes' can seem odd. New York Review Books picks up a 1995 translation of Basti, some twenty years later ? (Cool that they're doing Samskara too -- but, you know, not exactly a novelty .....). Then there are the recent Uday Prakash titles, translated by Jason Grunebaum -- The Girl with the Golden Parasol (picked up by Yale University Press, five years after the Indian publication) and The Walls of Delhi, picked up by Seven Stories after originally being published by the University of Western Australia Press. (Aside: now that The Walls of Delhi is out in the US, is anyone going to review it? Hello? Anyone?)
Interesting that one of the hurdles several mention is: "the absence of dedicated lists". I've been really excited about the Murty Classical Library of India at Harvard University Press, but perhaps/apparently what's really needed is a university press willing to start up a South Asian dedicated list. (Come to think of it, a Southeast Asian one would be welcome too .....) But apparently there's an: "institutional lack of commitment to South Asia within U.S. universities" (which, sadly, sounds entirely plausible). Maybe with an increasing number of Indian billionaires looking for some intellectual street cred someone will think to fund one .....