English translation of controversial Kannada book goes awry resulting in delay

Translation software seems to be the reason for the delayed launch of former minister H Viswanath's autobiography.

Tilted Song of a Village Bird, the book is the English version of the autobiography Halli Hakki Haadu, and will undergo retranslation before being launched again.

The Kannada version of the book had kicked up a controversy last year over a paragraph that had hinted at a romantic link between former chief minister S M Krishna and film star B Saroja Devi when they were young.

The book was a hit and Viswanath decided to publish it in English. D N Shankar, a retired English professor from Mysore University, had taken up the translation work.But, according to the minister, the translation was off the mark.

"The quality of translation was not satisfactory. It has to be re-worked entirely," Viswanath said.

A source close to the minister said that Shankar had taken a very long time to complete the work and when Viswanath insisted, he handed over the translation work to his students after dividing the book into chapters.

The students finished the wrk quickly and gave it to Shankar who combined the chapters and gave it to Viswanath.

Hilarious

"We thought the translation was fine and sent it for print," said the source. "It was only when the book was about to go for print that somebody looked at some pages and found the translation was horrendous," he said.

The source feels Shankar's students used translation software as the translation was too mechanical and verbatim.

"Some parts were hilarious," he said. "I am sure it would have created a fresh controversy if it had hit the market."

On the other hand, Shankar said he did take time to make the work perfect and had not taken his students' help. "I agree there was a bit of urgency, but I didn't need anybody's help," said Shankar.

"I have translated the works of Kanakadasa, and Vachanas. This book was not a challenge."

Professor Bhaskar Rao, a professor working on developing translation software, said, "Translation software especially those from Kannada to English isu00a0 primitive and absurdities are bound to happen."

'Not another row'

Viswanath said: "I don't want to disqualify Shankar as a translator. He is a great scholar, but I want this particular work to be perfect as I don't want any controversy again."

He added that the controversial portion where the book said Krishna referred his past lovers as 'old numbers' had been removed from the English version.