‘With an accent’: How Deepa Bhasthi translated International Booker Prize-shortlisted ‘Heart Lamp’
Translator Deepa Bhashthi and author Banu Mushtaq are the first duo from the Kannada language to make the International Booker Prize shortlist. Heart Lamp: Selected Stories is Mushtaq’s debut appearance in English, and Bhasthi’s third published translation. They have worked together for three years to make it possible, the diligence and love evident in each story. The book has been published in the UK by And Other Stories and on the Indian subcontinent by Penguin Random House India.
Mushtaq’s voice is full of fire and wire, and she writes about the injustices against women predominantly through faith and societal structures. Bhasthi matches her author’s rhythm and designs a translation that is energetic and flavourful. She has made the English language her own.
In the shortlist announcement, the jury said about Bhasthi’s translation, “The tight-gauged texture of the intricate translation creates a most invigorating reading experience, rare nowadays in English-language fiction.”
Heart Lamp is not only a big achievement for Kannada literature, but also a gift to a global readership. It gestures to the fabulous possibilities in Indian language fiction, the remarkable wealth of voices, and the richness of the short fiction form, which has so often been undermined.
Besides translating, Bhasthi also writes fiction, and her cultural criticism, essays, columns and journalism have been published in more...
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