Guest Translators Submission Guidelines

This blog is open to guest translators who wish to publish their English translations of Tamil fiction. Interested readers can send their translations (only English translations). Re-translation of stories or fictions already translated may be avoided, although you may consider re-translation if there is a strong justification. Kindly adhere to ethical values regarding plagiarism, and please obtain permission from copyright holders where applicable (this does not apply to public domain or nationalized literary works). If you are interested in sharing your translations, please send them to solitaryindian78@gmail.com. When submitting your translations, ensure that the original Tamil story is also attached for cross-reference. If the original story is available online, you may include the link.

Currently, this blog primarily focuses on posting English translations of Tamil short stories and poems. Please do not send full-length novels. If you wish to send a full-length novel, you may submit it in parts at regular intervals.

While I won’t scrutinize your translations word by word, I kindly request you to note the following:

1. This is my personal blog. Contributions are purely voluntary, and guest translators will not receive any honorarium for their contributions. Translators do not have to pay anything to have their works posted here.

2. Grammar rules are respected. However, I don’t expect your language to be as formal as high school English based on "Wren and Martin" rules. Chaste English is welcome, but it is not a strict requirement. Readers should be able to recognize that the translator is familiar with the nuances of the English language. Simple errors that can be corrected with a cursory glance are not indicative of one's core skills in English, so don’t worry about minor slips.

3. Please keep your translations readable. They should be easy to understand, even if they do not command the highest literary merit.

4. Avoid verbosity unless absolutely necessary. If the word ‘suffocation’ suffices, use it instead of ‘asphyxiation’ unless the latter conveys something the former cannot.

5. Ensure that readers can understand what you convey through your language without straying too far from the original text. Being skilled in language does not give you the liberty to disregard the ethics of translation. You are communicating with readers through your translations, and many may be quite well-versed in English language and translation works, even if they do not translate themselves.

6. Before sending, please review your translation at least twice to catch any spelling errors.

7. Respect punctuation.

8. I would be happy to publish your photograph alongside the original author. If you like, send your photograph and a brief introduction about yourself. People enjoy knowing about translators.

9. Lastly, please do not rely on Google Translate or any AI tools for your translations. Trust your skills and intuition. Remember, AI tools may assist in academic translation but fall short in literary translation, often producing nonsensical results due to their algorithms. Use AI tools ONLY for checking punctuation and proofreading, and DEFINITELY NOT FOR LITERARY TRANSLATION.

A simple tip for good translation (especially for beginners): read as many English novels as possible that were written after the 1950s and novels written in English about Indian society or contexts. Books by R. K. Narayan, Vikram Seth, Amitav Ghosh, Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, Anita Desai, Manohar Malgonkar, Shobha De, and Chetan Bhagat (though I don’t recommend the last two) would be particularly helpful. Pay attention to actions, situations, and emotions described.

With lots of love,

Saravanan Karmegam.