Padmagandha And PEN Congress Issue - 2018 Author: Abhishek Jakhade|अभिषेक जाखडे

"This attempt has surely opened new vistas. It has created the hope that the Marathi language, the translators and writers in it, will start thinking of bringing more such works within their ken. This attempt also indicates that perhaps some of the great works in Marathi, a language with literary tradition of a thousand years, will enter other languages outside the main European languages.
The compilation of translations in this volume is the first step in the direction of establishing an active translation exchange between the languages of the world---and surely the world has many mighty languages other than the few European languages seen as 'global' languages-and many Indian languages. The great German poet and thinker had imagined, two centuries ago, the possibility of emergence of 'world literature.' In that direction, several publications have come out from North America and Europe. Their contribution cannot be ignored. However, 'world literature' will really become 'world' literature only when the less known languages of Asia start conversing with the least known languages of the other continents. I would like to describe the present publication as a nascent beginning of realization of that dream. I hope that the delegates of the PEN Congress will give this dream, to quote William Shakespeare, 'a name and a local habitation.' That would be a befitting tribute to the Mahatma's wife in whose site of eternal rest they are meeting this year