Author: K Keshavan Prasad
Publisher: Sahitya Akademi
Year: 2001
Language: English
Pages: 444
ISBN/UPC (if available):
Description
Male Madeshwara, an oral epics sung in Karnataka, is documented by K Keshavan Prasad on the basis of recitations of the epic by Henbane Malaya and his troupe. This translation into English is by C N Ramachandra and L N Bhat.
The translation is a model of its kind. Simple and clear, it reads so naturally that one might be tempted to image it has been rather easy to write. In fact, however, this naturalness results from artifice: Prof. Ramachandran has in effect devised a new diction for the poem in English, a task requiring both imagination and painstaking attention to detail, especially in the case of an oral narrative that contains numerous repeated phrases.
The bards who created and transmitted Male Madeshwara would no doubt be surprised to learn that they had acquired a new, English-speaking audience, but both bards and audience may consider themselves well-served.
THE TRANSLATOR:
Dr. Ramachandran has published literary and scholarly works in Kannada as well as English and has a distinguished academic career to his credit. Dr. Bhat, a poet in Kannada, is a Senior Lecturer in Roshmi Nikkaya College in Mangalore.
Contents
Acknowledgement
Foreword
Introduction
Kannada Fold Epics : A Profile
Towards a Framework for Kannada Folk Epic
Male Madeshwara
Prathane
Invocation
The Birth and Childhood of Madeshwara
Junje Gowda
King Shravana
Sankamma
Bevinatti Kalamma
Saragoorayya
Auspicious Aarathi
Glossary
Bibliography