The parrot of Thunjan also sings in English
By
M.K.Dileepkumar (dileepkumar777@gmail.com)
In Malayana Manorama news paper Metro edition ,
Bangalore(27/7/2013)
(A friend who had to discontinue reading of Malayalam with a death of her
father, requested Ramachander to translate
Adhyathma Ramayanam in to English. Due to not only those Malayalis who do not Malayalam
but also people of other countries got a chance to know the parrot song of
Thunjan from nearby.)
She had heard the story of Malayalam mainly from her father.
Her father who used to read without fail the sweet poems of Ramayana every year, during the month of Karkidagam (July-august),
knew it very well. But to Rameela who lives in a country outside the chance of
hearing Ramayana was lost with her parting away from her father. Though she had
the desire to read Ramayanam, following her father, since she did not know how
to read Malayalam, the chance of reading it was lost. It was at that time she
desired to have the Ramayanam in English.
P.R.Ramachander says that,
it was then, his friend Rameela approached him with a request to transliterate
and Translate Ramayanam in to English. As per his friend’s request, he started
translating Ramayanam in to English in January last year. It was like that, without losing even
slightly the meaning of each poem, Ramayana was converted in to English in
seven months.
Thus the parrot
song of Ramayanam which was owned by Malayalam
, for the first time crossed the boundary of languages. The help
rendered to a friend thus became useful to the new generation.
Let all people read this parrot song
The
translation has been done in such a way
that it is useful not only those of the new generation living outside our
country who do not know Malayalam but also useful to those who speak other
languages and want to understand Ramayanam. It has been then put in the
internet so that anyone living anywhere
in the world can read it without even spending a single paisa. Each
stanza has been translated in such a way that its meaning has not been lost in
any way. Also a summary and a separate description of each chapter also have been added.
The mastery of
Ramachander who has made translation as his fanaticism does not end here. Apart
from Ramayanam , he has also translated
27 Upanishads, thousands of stotras from Hindi, Sanskrit, Malayalam and Tamil,
several works of Poonthanam including Jnanappana. There is no end to the
translations that he has done so far .Apart from this he has written about 50
stories for children and about thirty poems.
Malayalam proverbs in English
It is worth noting
that he has also translated 100 proverbs in to English. He has explained each
proverb with a story so that even little children would understand them. For
reading all these which have been published in the internet or taking a print
out of these, you need not even spend five paisa as copy right is not claimed.
He is also not interested in earning fame out of it. His only desire is to make
all those great works in Malayalam to
cross the limits of language and make
them available to more people.
The Malayali who studied and grew up outside Kerala
Though belonging Trichur Chelakkara,
Ramachander grew up outside Kerala. Due to living in various places all over the country for his studies as well as employment, he learned very many
languages. When he was studying in Secunderabad, his second language was Tamil.
In young age besides Malayalam, he had also leant Sanskrit. After living in
various places in India by the time he settled down in Bangalore, he had attained mastery over Sanskrit, English,
Malayalam, Thamizh and Hindi. That is how he started with his hobby of translation in to English.
His reading of Upanishads, Ramayana and broad variety of books at the young
age helped him a lot in this hobby. He
retired 13 years back as head of division of Economics and statistics from Indian Institute of Horticultural research,
Bangalore and became very active in translation since then.
During the initial
period he translated thousands of
prayers from Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam
and Sanskrit. Then he translated Upanishads, followed by translation of
thousands of Carnatic Music Krithis,
Ayyappa songs, works of Poonthanam, Bhgawad Gita, and Soundarya Lahari etc one after another in to English. From
then on he filled the internet with thousands of translation.
Now on translation
of Valmiki Ramayana
His next task is
to translate Valmiki Ramayanam in to English. Since this is much bigger in content of slokas than Adhyathma Ramayanam,
he would take more than a year to do this job. When there are 7000 Slokas in
Adhyathma Ramayana, In Valmiki Ramayana which tells the full story of Rama,
there are 24,000 slokas. But Ramachander says that more of spirituality is there
in Adhyathma Ramayanam. In the parrot song of Adhyathma Ramayanam, written in a
language which can be understood by common people, there are several
prayers and Rama Gita, which is told
by Rama to Lakshmana , to clear all
the spiritual doubts of Lakshmana during their stay in the forest, which is a specialty
of this work.
He did not face
any great difficulty while attempting the translation of Ramayana-the parrot
song. To understand the deeper meaning of words, sometimes he used to Malayalam
commentaries of that great work. Sometimes he also used to refer to the
Malayalam dictionary.
Ramachander4 says
that it is surprising to him that many of the great works in Malayalam have
still not been translated in to English. He is not aware of English
translations of even the great works of Ezhuthachan. He feels that people did not feel the need for doing the same.
The Reading community online
Ramachander says that during this time when internet has become
very popular, there is large number of readers for on line literature. He says
that his creations are read by at least one thousand people daily .He had been
popularizing them through his friends and social net works. Ramachander says
that his major aim is to create a chance to such readers to read the great
works of Malayalam.
Some internet links of Ramachander’s works:-
1.Translation of stotras , books and Krithis:-
2.Thunjan’s Adhyathma Ramayana:-
3.Ramachander’ stories
and prayers for Children:-
4.Ramachander’s poems
3.Vamiki Ramayanam :-
