My Views on "Boys of the Dawn"

Translation is not about words. It’s about what the words are about.

One normally associates a successful technocrat / business executive to write on matters connected with their chosen field of specialisation. Books written by Mark McCormack, Lee Iacocca and others are good examples of such books. But the books about the “Boys of the Dawn” were never written before I think and perhaps Mr. Shivu. K is the pioneer to throw a light upon such interesting boys and their jobs.

Shivu’s “Boys of the Dawn” is the book on common day to day issues of News Paper Boys who starts their work early mornings. The book is essentially a collection of his musings on the experiences the writer had published in his blog and other dailies. The book portrays a wide variety of the boys of the dawn.

The narrative is refreshingly matter of fact. A friend of mine was commenting that the book does not have literary merit. Rather than a literary masterpiece, give me this book any day. It makes me happy. If you want to get an essence of the spirit of the Boys of the Dawn, Shivu’s book in English translation “Boys of the Dawn” has to come under the ''must read'' category.

Gubbacchi Satish’s translation is excellent and his style of writing in this book is simple, lucid and very easy to understand. Simplicity of language is always a characteristic feature of a good translation. The experiences penned by Shivu will give you a new window of life. And Gubbachi Satish’s translation has been so successful perhaps because, you feel he is sitting right beside you and narrating Shivu’s experiences through English and he has succeeded in bringing all that there is in the original work.

Finally, I would like to conclude by saying that ‘Translators don’t just translate the languages or words. They translate ideas’ and Mr. Satish has certainly been one of them.

Uday Itagi