The late Bangladeshi writer Akhtaruzzaman Elias’ novel, ‘Khwabnama’, weaves a tapestry of magical realism blending dreams and memory, legend and history with the struggle of marginalised people. Translated from Bangla to English by Arunava Sinha, the book, ‘the greatest novel I have translated so far’, according to Sinha himself, is set in the time of the Tebhaga Movement in Bengal of the 1940s, and explores the aspirations of a farmer as he cultivates his land. In conversation with literary historian, author and translator Rakhshanda Jalil, on JLF WORDS ARE BRIDGES, Arunava Sinha discusses the nuances of translating this. Arunava Sinha translates classic, modern and contemporary Bengali fiction and non-fiction from Bangladesh and India into English. Over 50 of his translations have been published so far. His recent translations include Kunal Basu's The Endgame, Bani Basu's Moom, Taslima Nasrin's Shameless, Desire for Fire: Modern Bengali Poetry in Translation and the forthcoming Akhtaruzzman Elias's Khwabnama. Dr Rakhshanda Jalil is a multi-award-winning translator, writer, and literary historian. She has published over 25 books and written over 50 academic papers and essays. Some of her books include: Liking Progress, Loving Change: A Literary History of the Progressive Writers Movementin Urdu (OUP, 2014); a biography of Urdu feminist writer Dr Rashid Jahan ARebel and her Cause (Women Unlimited, 2014); a translation of The Sea Lies Ahead, Intizar Husain's seminal novel on Karachi (Harper Collins,2015) and Krishan Chandar's partition novel Ghaddar (Westland, 2017), among others. She runs an organization called Hindustani Awaaz, devoted to the popularization of Hindi-Urdu literature and culture.
