Languages are beautiful. All languages have their own framework for literature. Literature is something that liberates us and educates us. But sometimes some stories never leave the Lakshman Rekha the language presents itself as and never reaches it’s potential. Since English is a language popularly accepted as the most commonly spoken and read language, isn’t it a good idea to translate some of the best works of regional languages into English so that everybody get’s to enjoy and learn? Literature shouldn’t and cannot be chained to a single language.
Here are a few beautiful stories that need help transcending towards a larger audience from Marathi.
1. Khadakavarla Ankur – N. D. Tamhankar
Loose translation: The plantling that grows out of a rock
This is a heart rendering story of a little boy who has big dreams in a society which sees art as a paap. He aspires to be a theater actor and goes on to become one of the biggest ones in history. And this story is his story of reaching there and everything he sees and suffers in between.
2. Bhillaveer Kalinga – Gopal Nilkanth Dandekar
Loose translation: The hero of the Bhills, Kalinga
This is the story of Kalinga, a bhill, who has a simple, tribal life which is disrupted by the demure entrance of a city girl who he falls in love with. This book is rather known for the insight it gives us into the times and lives of ou rich tribal heritage.
3. Shyamchi Aai – Sane Guruji
Loose translation: Shyam’s Mother
It is the story of a mother as evident from the title who does anything and everything for her child. A Maharashtrian still tears up whenever he reads or sees the screen adaptation of the same.
4. Shrimaan Yogi – Ranjit Desai
Loose translation:Â The King who is a Yogi
This book is a historical novel based on the life of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, who was a fierce warrior and the only king who was able to unite a nation against the Mughals.
5. Mrityunjaya – Shivaji Sawant
Loose translation: The one who has won over death
This book is an interesting read about the thoughts that might have run through the great soldier and Pandava, Arjuna during the entire epic of Mahabharata and how he deals with everything that was going on around him.
6. Ek Hota Carver – Veena Gavankar
Loose translation: There was someone named Carver
This is a biography of sorts on George Washington Carver, a scientist and a man with pride, who was born during the time America was under the dark shadows of slavery. And his journey in the quest of knowledge which takes to becoming one the pioneers in the green revolution in America.
7. Asa Mi Asami – P. L. Deshpande
Loose translation: A man like a man
It’s a comic take on how India gradually went through urbanization through the eyes of a simple man in Mumbai, living in the chawl system and slowly but surely get’s to have a taste of modernisation and is completely baffled by it;s nature.
8. Bahinabaichi Gaani – Bahinabai Chaudhary
Loose translation: The Songs of Bahinabai
This book is a collection of all the songs and poems written, rather spoken by an illiterate woman named Bahinabai displayed an unnerving but staggeringly beautiful and true realities of life.
9. Vapurza – V. P. Kale
Loose translation: The author is expressing the knowledge life imparted to him
Open the book and start reading from any page, it’s overflowing with wisdom and knowledge. That’s exactly why it needs to reach the maximum amount of people who need encouragement in life and a reason to live.
10. Kale Paani – V. D. Savarkar
Loose translation: Black Water
It’s an autobiography of sorts of the great freedom fighter, V. D. Savarkar and his experiences in one of the cruelest and feared jails of the world during the British Rule where he was sentenced to go for demanding freedom through his literary words and activism.
11. Geet Ramayana – G. D. Madgulkar
Loose translation: Ramayana in the form of songs
It’s one of the most celebrated musicals of all time in Marathi literature for it’s beautiful ornamentation of words and music and probably it’s time it reaches a larger audience through being translated into other languages keeping up with it’s timeless beauty.
12. Sundar Mi Honar – P. L. Deshpande
Loose translation: I’ll become beautiful
This is a revelation of sorts on what society sees as beautiful and civilized as a professor obsessed with the clarity of language and the civilize ways of living chooses a simple flower vendor as his experiment to prove how he and his ideas are better than the simple living.
13. Yayati – V. S. Khandekar
Loose translation: One of the ancestors of Pandavas
It’s one of the epics that never come forward as the center of attention in Mahabharat are the Pandavas. But there are numerous backstories to it and the story of Yayati is one of them. It shows you how karmic cycle of life continues through your generations and how complex Hindu mythology can be.
14. Kosala – Bhalchandra Nemade
Loose translation: An ancient Indian kingdom
It’s a book about a young man writing out his diary entries about his life as a student and how it describes “historical investigations” often undertaken by Sangvikar ( the protagonist) and his friends, which ultimately reveal to them the absurdity and pathos of their respective lives.
