12.12.2019
On Human Rights Day 10 December, Ledikasyon pu Travayer published a beautiful pocket-sized collection of short stories by great writers in Kreol. This is a landmark in the rich, ongoing literary production in Kreol. LALIT congratulates LPT and the translators for this contribution.
The translated stories are by Leo Tolstoy from Russia, Edgar Allen Poe and O. Henry from the USA, Saadat Hasan Manto, Ammani Ammal and Abburi Chayadevi from the Indian Sub-Continent, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o from Kenya, Oscar Wilde from Ireland, the Brothers Grimm from Germany and Arthur Conan Doyle from Scotland. The mini-compendium is designed specially for young people, now at college, who have studied Mauritian Kreol as a subject.
In his launch speech, writer Carl de Souza spoke on the progress of the Kreol language over recent years and on the importance of the standardization of the orthography of the language, and on the importance of reading the kind of literature in this collection. He spoke in the enchanting setting of a crowded “Book Lover”, the Grand River North West bookshop.
It will be an ideal New Year’s present, Rada Kistnasamy, presiding, said. Eight of the eleven translators were present, Hassenjee Essackjee, Lindsay Dhookit, Vijay Naraidoo, Alain Ah-Vee, Jayen Teeroovengadum, Kavinien Karupudayyan, Lindsey Collen and Abdool Hafez Abdoolah. Readings were done from three of the stories by Flavia Doherty-Bigara, Anne-Sophie Pyanee and Kavinien Karupudayyan.
Alain Ah-Vee, speaking for LPT with the aplomb only he has on this subject, linked the freedom to speak and read-and-write in your own language with human rights day and how the Government was announcing that Kreol will be introduced into Parliament. But that Government is always using various pretexts for delay. Alain linked freedom in general with the absence of the old colonial, linguistic restraints to creativity, and how in LPT and other organizations, we along with writers and artists, have just seized our freedom, freed ourselves, by writing in Kreol just like that. Over the decades, this has made us confident and has produced the beginnings of a whole written oeuvre in Kreol.
The book is available at LPT Bookshop and at Le Cygne in Rose-Hill at Rs 100/=. Here is the entire contents page:
Enn Leker ki Koze par Edgar Allen Poe (A Tell-Tale Heart tradir Ananda Devi)
Misie Egoist La par Oscar Wilde (The Selfish Giant adapte Jean Lindsay Dhookit)
Lavi Bonzai par Abburi Chayadevi (Bonsai Bratuku tradir Rajwantee Dalliah)
Tipti Tifi Pli Malin ki Gran-Gran Zom par Leo Tolstoy (Children are Wiser than Elders tradir Hassenjee Essackjee)
Seki nou Atann, Seki Arive par Ammani Ammal (Sankalpamoum Sambavamoum tradir Kavinien Karupudayyan)
Kado Trwa Maz par O. Henry (The Gift of the Magi tradir par Ramesh Ramdoyal)
Gran Experimantasion Keinplatz par Arthur Conan Doyle (The Great Keinplatz Experiment tradir Abdool Hafez Abdoolah)
Revolision Dibout Drwat: Kifer Imin Mars Drese lor so De Lipie par Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (The Upright Revolution: Or Why Humans Walk Upright tradir Lindsey Collen)
Ti Latab, Bourik ek Baton par De Frer Grimm (La Petite Table, l'Âne et le Bâton tradir/adapte Jayen Teeroovengadum)
Toba Tek Singh par Saadat Hasan Manto (Toba Tek Singh tradir Alain Ah Vee, Lindsey Collen, Vijay Naraidoo)