One of the most widely-read Assamese novels ever, Asimot Jar Heral Sima (literally: Who lost Their Limit in Infinity), will be out in English for the global readers.
Shalim M Hussain, an award winning poet, translator and researcher has translated the popular Assamese novel into English. Hussain said that the English version of the popular novel is likely to be out for readers by the end of 2020.
“The translation is a compromise. Some of the long descriptive passages are difficult to retain in English. The book falls within the sentimental novel genre. Here, one has to be very careful while translating because sentimentality is very culture-specific,” Hussain told The News Mill.
The English version is being published by Papyrus of Guwahati. The name, however, will remain the same as ‘Asimot Jar Heral Sima’.
“I think I have done my best to retain the tone of the novel in my translation. The dialogues and characters are very close to the original although one character (I won’t specify who) becomes more dominant in the translation,” he added.
The novel was originally written by Bhubanmohan Baruah under the pen name of Kanchan Baruah which was published in 1945. Since then it remained one of the most favourite books of the generations of Assam.
A native of Sontoli of Assam’s Kamrup district, Hussain’s manuscript of poems ‘Betel Nut City’ has won the RL Poetry Prize (Editor’s Choice) in 2017.
His translation of Kamal Kumar Tanti’s Sahitya Akademi Award winning book ‘Postcolonial Poems’ has been published by Red River, Delhi. Apart from that his two books are forthcoming – an edited poetry anthology and a work of fiction.
