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Portrait Poet, writer and translator, Madan Lal Madhu helps foster cultural ties
Life in letters: Linking Gorky and Premchand Madhu's tryst with Russia began in 1957 when he was sent there as a translator. The octogenarian writer is now a sturdy cultural bridge between India and Russia.
Timeline
A translator across cultures
elena Krovvidi
Embassy of India in Moscow
rir
Those were heady days of cultural bonhomie. Back in the 1950s when the legendary actor Raj Kapoor enjoyed wild adulation with his film “Awaara” to the 1970s when the then Soviet president Leonid Brezhnev met Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Madan Lal Madhu, a journalist, writer and translator, acted as a bridge-builder in fostering closer cultural ties between the two friendly countries. A well-known poet and playwright, a founder of the Indian community association, Shamat, in Moscow and an eminent journalist who wrote analytical articles on the life in the USSR for Indian dailies, the English-language Tribune and the Hindi edition of the Times of India – Madhu is a man of many talents. After India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s historic trip to the Soviet Union in 1955, then president Nikita Khrushchev visited India two years later. Cultural cooperation was high on the agenda. Translators and editors were much in demand for working in Moscow. Madhu was among those invited by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs for working in Moscow. By that time, Madhu had published two volumes of poems, plays and literary articles. One of his less-commented tasks was translating Communist literature of the time. Madhu, who didn’t speak a word of Russian, had to work with the existing English versions of Russian works, translating them from English into Hindi. As he says, they had a controlling editor, a Russian native-speaker who was fluent in Hindi. Being a literary man, he soon started to learn Russian on his own. It’s hard to name all the literary works he translated into Hindi, but the ones that immediately spring to mind are ‘Medny Vsadnik’, Little tragedies, Fairy Tales, Belkin’s stories, ‘Kapitanskaya dochka’, ‘Pikovaya Dama’ by Pushkin,
Down the decades, Madhu has brought India and Russia closer with his translations of Russian masterpieces into Hindi.
Both Gorky and Premchand were concerned with issues like poverty and social injustice. ‘Voyna I Mir,’‘Anna Karenina’ by Tolstoy and ‘Bednye lyudi’ by Dostoyevski. The biggest challenge, Madhu admits, was translating‘Voyna I Mir’(‘War and Peace’) by Leo Tolstoy. “There was so much going on in the plot and every character was a unique personality." Madhu says that finer sensitivity to the trials and tribulations of the ordinary man is a common theme that cuts across Russian and Indian literature. He recalls his PhD dissertation and a book called ‘Gorki aur Premchand: Do Amar Pratibhayen’, comparing the two famous writers, Maxim Gorki and Munshi Premchand. Both of them were concerned with social issues such as poverty and injustice and illuminated the lives of ordinary people. According to Madhu, Leo Tolstoy has had profound influence on the Indian people and writers.“His ideas were and still remain very popular in India,” says he.“Leo Tolstoy
Literature
in association with rossiyskaya gazeta, russia THE times of india wednesday_MARCH 30_2011
and Mahatma Gandhi were in correspondence, and Tolstoy had a great influence on the Indian independence movement. Also, Gorky’s ‘Mat’ (‘Mother’) is among the favourites in India, because of its sensitive depiction of the struggles of a poor person. Indian literature also influenced Russian readers profoundly. Rabindranath Tagore was “a separate story” for people in the Soviet Union, his poems were read avidly and his name was familiar to every schoolboy or girl," he says. Madhu also authored two books of memoirs.“I remember Indira Gandhi arranging a reception at the best restaurant,” Madhu recalls.“I was invited too. I was standing near Indira Gandhi, Brezhnev, Kosygin, Gromyko and others. Brezhnev drank some orange juice and said, addressing Kosygin: ‘Alexei, I’m already drunk.’It was a joke but Indira Gandhi at first didn’t understand it because at Indian events, alcohol is not served. But we explained it to her.” Madhu’s multi-faceted work came in for high recognition when the Indian government bestowed on him Padma Shri, one of the highest Indian civilian honours, in 1991. In Russia,
1925: Dr. Madhu was born in Lahore (now in Pakistan). 1947: Graduated from the Punjabi University, with MA in politics and economy. 1947-1955: Taught politics and economy at SD College in Shimla city and Gandhi Memorial College in Ambala. 1955-1957: Worked for All India Radio as an advisor on programmes in Hindi language. In 1957, he was chosen by India’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs as one of the translators to work in the Soviet Union. 1953: The first volume of poems ‘Unmad’ was published. 2011: The first book of memoirs about his life in India before going to the Soviet Union ‘Thundle Ujle Tihre’ was published.
then PresidentVladimir Putin honoured him with the Friendship Order in 2001. And then were a string of special events organised to celebrate his 85th birth anniversary. When asked if he had ever considered coming back home to India, Madhu’s voice brims with emotion. "I love my profession – literature.And an opportunity to work in literature, to translate Russian literary works means a lot to me. And I had this opportunity in the Soviet Union.” There were many reasons for his decision to stay on. But probably the most important one was Tatyana – his Russian wife. He met Tatyana after three or four years of working at the publishing house in Moscow where she was the controlling editor. "A person is rooted in the country; this relationship attached me to the life in Moscow even more," says Madhu. Madhu and Tatyana, married for over 40 years, stay mostly in Russia, but he spends one or two months in India. Tatyana speaks perfect Hindi and feels at home in India. “There have been many colours and shades of my life in Russia and together they create a separate picture,” Madhu says.
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Books Top 5 that created waves
From spy tales to fables, a new wave of Russian authors The Russian literature, known for its depth and memorable characters, is making its presence felt in the 21st century. RIR presents 5 widely-acclaimed authors and their books, which are now available in the English translation. The books represent genres that have evolved over the past decade.
1. He-Lover of death
Boris Akunin (W&N) Akunin is the pen name of the philologist and translator Grigory Chkhartishvili, whose postmodernist detective novels have become bestsellers. Akunin's hero, Erast Fandorin, a detective, is Russia’s answer to Sherlock Holmes.
Pelevin, with literary circles agreeing that he is one of the most important contemporary Russian authors. In the story, eight people meet on a certain website in a certain chat room. They begin communicating and through a series of innuendos and tiny details they, as well as the reader,quickly gather that they are locked in a virtual labyrinth – the very same labyrinth as featured in the Theseus and Minotaur myth.
4. Metro 2033
2. Daniel Stein, interpreter
Ludmila Ulitskaya (W&N) Ulitskaya works in an area that could be defined as intellectual female prose.The story follows the escapades of a Polish Jew, who managed to not only survive the Second World War, but also save hundreds of people from Nazi concentration camps.
3.The Helmet of Horror
Viktor Pelevin (Canongate Books) A near consensus has been reached in Russia regarding
Dmitry Glukhovsky (Gollancz) Muscovite Dmitry Glukhovsky has lived in Israel, Germany and France. It took him eight years to write Metro 2033, which may partly explain his book’s popularity: it is not merely post-apocalyptic science fiction, but a true coming-of-age novel.
5. Living Souls Dmitry Bykov (Alma Books) Dmitry Bykov is not only a novelist, but also a poet, television and radio host, columnist and critic. His highly ironic story is a description of civil war in Russia in the 21st century, where theVarangians are pitched against the Khazars. The characters clearly evoke biting literary caricatures of contemporary Russian publicists and political analysts.