A Translation of 'Ellarum Chollanu' from Malayalam to English

Original Text: എല്ലാരും ചൊല്ലണ്

എല്ലാരും ചൊല്ലണ് എല്ലാരും ചൊല്ലണ്

എല്ലാരും ചൊല്ലണ് എല്ലാരും ചൊല്ലണ്

കല്ലാണീ നെഞ്ചിലെന്ന്

കരിങ്കല്ലാണ് കരിങ്കല്ലാണ് നെഞ്ചിലെന്ന്

ഞാനൊന്നു തൊട്ടപ്പോ നീലക്കരിമ്പിന്റെ

തുണ്ടാണ് കണ്ടതയ്യാ - ചക്കര

ത്തുണ്ടാണ് കണ്ടതയ്യാ

നാടാകെച്ചൊല്ലണ് നാട്ടാരും ചൊല്ലണ്

കാടാണ് കരളിലെന്ന് -കൊടും കാടാണ്

കൊടുംകാടാണ് കരളിലെന്ന്

ഞാനൊന്നു കേറിയപ്പൊ

നീലക്കുയിലിന്റെ കൂടാണ് കണ്ടതയ്യാ

കുഞ്ഞിക്കൂടാണ് കണ്ടതയ്യാ

എന്തിന്നു നോക്കണ് എന്തിന്നു നോക്കണ്

ചന്തിരാ നീ ഞങ്ങളേ അയ്യോ ചന്തിരാ

അയ്യോ ചന്തിരാ നീ ഞങ്ങളേ

ഞാനില്ല മേപ്പോട്ട് ഞാനില്ല മേപ്പോട്ട്

കല്യാണച്ചെക്കനുണ്ടേ താഴെ

കല്യാണച്ചെക്കനുണ്ടേ

ചെണ്ടോന്നു വാങ്ങണം മുണ്ടുമുറിയ്ക്കണം

പൂത്താലി കെട്ടീടേണം പൊന്നിൻ പൂത്താലി

പൊന്നിൻപൂത്താലി കെട്ടീടേണം

കളിയല്ല കിളിവാലൻ വെറ്റില തിന്നെന്റെ

ചുണ്ടൊന്നു ചോപ്പിയ്ക്കേണം എന്റെ

ചുണ്ടൊന്നു ചോപ്പിയ്ക്കേണം

എല്ലാരും ചൊല്ലണ് എല്ലാരും ചൊല്ലണ്

കല്ലാണീ നെഞ്ചിലെന്ന്

കരിങ്കല്ലാണ് കരിങ്കല്ലാണ് നെഞ്ചിലെന്ന്

Translated Text: All the people say

All the people say, all the people say,

all the people say, all the people say,

there’s just stone for a heart,

stone! Just stone for a heart.

As I touched it,

A sugarcane slice was what I saw ayya!

A sweet slice was what I saw ayya.

The town says, the townspeople say,

a forest in the mind, a dense forest!

A dense forest is his mind.

As I went in,

a cuckoo’s nest was what I saw ayya!

A small nest was what I saw ayya.

Why would we look? Oh! Why would we look

at the moon? Oh! The moon.

Why would we look at the moon?

I won’t go above! I won’t go above!

My groom awaits, below

my groom awaits.

Flowers to buy, mundu to cut,

thaali to tie, thaali for the ponnu!

Thaali for the ponnu to tie.

This is not a game, to chew tender betel leaves,

For my lips to be reddened,

My lips have to be reddened.

All the people say, all the people say,

all the people say, all the people say,

there’s just stone for a heart,

stone! Just stone for a heart.

The text translated above is a Malayalam song “Ellarum Chollanu”(literally meaning ‘All the people say’) which was released in 1954 as part of the film Aaram Thampuran. The song was sung by Janamma David and P. Bhaskaran was the lyricist. The song is written in the language of Malayalam folklore with plain writing which contains idioms, ideas and metaphors. 

The story behind the song is that of an illiterate Dalit girl who falls in love with a high-caste man. ‘Ellarum Chollanu’ is her telling the world about how perfect they are for each other and how she can see him unlike anyone else.

This song has existed for almost as much as Malayalam cinema and is such a household tune, almost anyone living in Kerala from my generation would know. With its catchy rhythm and easy lyrics, the song has been one of my favourite Malayalam songs and so was my first choice for a translation assignment. Sung in the dactylic meter, the song has a distinct rhyme and rhythm which the English translation can not capture without sacrificing its faithfulness to the original text. In order to retain some sort of rhythm and to follow the rules of grammar, I have had to introduce punctuation(not followed in Malayalam) into the translation.

My intention as a translator was to translate this Malayalam folk song to a larger Indian audience. As a person who lived in a Malayali household for 18 years and as someone who is actively studying English, Much like the original text, my intention was to translate into a simple and understandable English. I sought influence from general patterns of Malayalam folk songs and pre-existing translations of such while translating this song.

Paniker talks about the difficulties of translating to and from Malayalam in his paper “ THE ANXIETY OF AUTHENTICITY REFLECTIONS ON LITERARY TRANSLATION”. In section 12 of this paper, he details some of the issues and questions of translation of which I address some below. Unlike many folk songs, ‘Ellarum Chollanu’ has a standard version known to all since its conception. This makes the task of translation much easier as the confusion between sources is solved. Another fact about the song is that it is not religious or political(to the extent that other songs in Malayalam cinema tend to be). This helps the translator to have a ‘free’ mind about the tone and motivation being harmful/offensive unlike when we translate from texts like the Bible or Sangam literature.

Throughout the process of translation, faithfulness to meaning and structure have been maintained. This faithfulness to meaning sometimes results in retaining the words in the original text as they were. Reasons for this include lack of an English word for it or loss of cultural and regional context. The seventh stanza of the song where there is talk of marriage is where the song is the most rooted in its culture(in usage of words). The word ‘mundu’ is well known across south India and though the phrase ‘to cut a mundu’(മുണ്ടുമുറിയ്ക്കണം) in Malayalam actually signifies preparing garments for the wedding, it felt more appropriate to just translate the idiom as it is instead of explaining it. Thaali and ponnu are two other words here which I have retained because they are pretty easy to understand for readers and also preserve the cultural context of the text.

Malayalam is a language which, like many other non-English languages in India, have short/small words which mean quite a lot and may need full sentences when translated to English. The word കളിയല്ല in Malayalam means ‘This is not a game’. Then translating this word into English affects the structure and aesthetic of the piece which existed in the original text. Another example is ചുണ്ടൊന്നു ചോപ്പിയ്ക്കേണം. These words together mean ‘Lips have to be reddened’. Without adding ‘my’ or ‘for’ to the text, it sounds abrupt in English. This is not the case in Malayalam and so to preserve the ‘lyrical’ nature of this text, such additions are necessary. One struggle I faced was with the word karal(കരളി) which translates to liver but actually means mind and so had to change it accordingly.

The Dalit girl’s literary background is shown in her usage of ayya(-യ്യാ) in ending words. ‘Ayya’ is an ancient Dravidian word meaning father which is used in Malayalam quite informally in illiterate parts of Kerala to denote respect(Lyricalbeautyblog, 2016). Another term suggesting her background is mepottu(മേപ്പോട്ട്) which means above/to go up. The formal pronunciation of this word is melottu while she uses the informal form of it. Such terms are important for the song's rhythm and also retaining them in the translation preserves the informal and jovial nature of the original.

It was a struggle to translate this piece as although I am just using a folk song with simple words, I am also translating(or trying to) one culture to another. This results in inconvenient expansions and punctuations for the meaning to still be conveyed. Such struggles are magnified when the translator himself has been distant from the culture he is translating from. Kalyan Raman said in an interview published in the Asymptote Journal that “People don’t realise that the translator brings all they know into the translation……Also, their knowledge of the world, history and culture, politics and worldview. Everything comes into the process of translation.”(In Conversation: Kalyan Raman - Asymptote Blog, 2018). This can also become a hindrance to the translator when they do not have all of these resources at hand.

In the end, such actions are undertaken so that the product may be consumed by a different market or readership. Ambai talks about this when she writes about the art of translation: “In the process of this transformation the writing is turned into a consumable product that can be easily consumed by a market of a different kind of readership”(Ambai, 2021). During the translation presentation, the Telugu group had remarked on how the ‘rooted’ nature of their text was lost after translation. Their notes on this helped me decide on what to retain in the text and what not to.The Marathi group described how structure gave tone in Indian languages which unfortunately can not be translated to English, especially with a language such as Malayalam.

Preserving the structure(repetitions and stanza/word distributions) and adding punctuation matching the text’s original rhythm helped me retain some sense of ‘lyricism’ in the translation. This translated text can thus take the reader to a world of romance that fights social, cultural and literary barriers to go against what ellarum chollanu.