Kerala in Translation at the Hay Festival

India-Wales Writers’ Chain 2010-12 launches this weekend at the Hay Festival in Trivandrum, Kerala to foster translation projects and cultural exchange through literature.

The British Council’s Wales-India programme in Kerala includes bringing two of Wales' most famous poets (Menna Elyfn, Paul Henry) together with two of Kerala's (O.N.V. Kurup, K. Satchidanandan) for a unique and compelling joint reading encompassing poetry in Welsh, English and Malayalam. Poet and dancer Tishani Doshi will read from her debut novel 'The Pleasure Seekers,' and National Poet of Wales Gillian Clarke will discuss her much-loved poetry in a separate session. To wrap up, the five poets attending will explore how poets from Wales and Kerala respond to the different challenges and opportunities of writing across more than one language.

Speaking to The Hindu on the subject of the festival's ambitions and readers' actual adoption of translations, Jnanpith Award winner Kurup notes:

Kerala is a land of avid readers, even in the rural areas there are plenty of people who revere the written word. Most of them are keen followers of Malayalam literature and poetry. English is read by a comparatively smaller group of readers. One of the reasons is the prohibitive price of books in English, which pushes it out of the reach of a large number of readers.