Imphal hosts Sahitya Akademi Translation Award

For the first time, Sahitya Akademi has presented Translation Prize 2015, with a grade at par with other major Akademi Prizes, at a function in Imphal on August 4, today.

The award ceremony is being held at Maharaja Chandrakirti Auditorium, Department of Art and Culture, with Raghuveer Chaudhari, eminent Gujarati writer and fellow of Sahitya Akademi as chief guest.

The ceremony kicked off with invocation to be followed by welcome address by K Sreenivasarao, secretary of Sahitya Akademi. President of Sahitya Akademi Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari gave presidential address which is being followed by presentation to the translation prize winners of the country.

Altogether 24 translators including 9 women writers were honored with 'Translation Prize 2015' during a solemn function organized by Sahitya Akademi at Maharaja Chandrakriti Auditorium, Department of Arts & Culture today.

The award recipients are Suren Talukder (Assamese), Mau Das Gupta (Bengali), Dhanshiri Swargiary (Bodo), Chhatrapal (JP Saraf) (Dogri), Susheela Punitha (English), Sharifa K Vijliwala (Gujarati), Damodar Khadse (Hindi), Na Damodar Shetty (Kannada), Rattan Lal Shant (Kashmiri), Jaymala Narayan Danait (Konkani), Devendra Jha (Maithili), KC Ajaya Kumar (Malayalam), N Khagendra Singh (Manipuri), Balwant Vasant Jeurkar (Marathi), Shankar Pradhan (Nepali), Shakuntala Baliarsingh (Odia), Balbir Parwana (Punjabi), Madan Saini (Rajasthani), Tarashankar Sharma 'Pandeya' (Sanskrit), Tala Tadu (Santhali), Sarita D Sharma (Sindhi), Gowri Kirubanandan (Tamil), LR Swamy (Telugu) and Suhail Ahmad Farooqi (Urdu).

N Khagendra Singh received the translator prize for his translated book in Manipuri "Lishingama Supna Mariphumarigi Mama" from the novel- 'Hajar Chourasir Ma' written by late Mahasweta Devi.

Chief Guest Raghuveer Chaudhari made concluding remarks, which is being followed bythe presentation of Krishnamayee Meera Dance ballet by Nilini and Kamalini.

On the next day, prize winning translators will share their creative experiences in the Translators' Meet at 10 am at Maharaja Chandrakirti Auditorium to be presided over by vice-president of Sahitya Akademi Chandrashekhar Kambar.

Sahitya Akademi's Book Exhibition-cum-Sale will take place from August 4 to 6 from 10 am to 6 pm.

Sahitya Akademi will conduct a reading programme-Abhivyakti on August 5 and 6 at the same venue. The programme will start with an inaugural session at 2.30 pm. Eminent English writer Temsula Ao will present inaugural address while eminent Manipuri writer H Behari Singh will make introductory remarks.

President of Sahitya Akademi will preside over the inaugural session. Writers from different languages Pankaj Gobinda Medhi (Assamese), Bijay Baglary (Bodo), Shiv Dev Sushil (Dogri), Hariram Dwivedi (Hindi), L Ibemhal (Manipuri), Indu Prava Devi (Nepali), Yum Vasugi (Tamil) and ASPS Ravi Prakash (Telugu) will read out their literary piece in the inaugural session, it said.

On August 6, there will be short story reading in the first session which will be chaired by K Radhakumar Singh, Jayaprakash Mavinakuli (Kannada), Sheela Kolambkar (Konkani), AK Beena (Malayalam) and GK Ainapure (Marathi).

In the second session, there will be a programme "My Inspiration in Writing" to be chaired by Harish Trivedi. Amar Mitra (Bengali), Mahendra Sinh Parmar (Gujarati), Santosh Alex (Hindi), L. Joychandra Singh (Manipuri) and Sitesh Tripathy (Odia) will read out papers.

In the last session, there will be Poets' Meet to be chaired by Sudeep Sen. Rahim Rahaber (Kashmiri), Kumar Manish Arvind (Maithili), N. Kirankumar (Manipuri), Baljeet Singh Raina (Punjabi), Meethesh Nirmohi (Rajashthani), Banamali Biswal (Sanskrit), Joba Murmu (Santali), Namdev Tarachandani (Sindhi) and Shakeel Shamsi (Urdu) will read out their poems, added the release.