Posts filed under 'Kannada literature'

Translation Tuesday: “Their Eyes are Like That” by Jayant Kaikini

January 20, 2026 | in Translations | by Carol Blaizy D’Souza

The market at dawn rubs out a night with its feet

Have you ever slept with your eyes open? In the Kannada verses of Jayant Kaikini, what might seem like a curse is re-conceived as a gift: in the strange spectacle of people who sleep with their eyes open and unblinking, the speaker of the poem finds a symbol of the slow, deliberate attention we might bring to every second of our waking lives, missing nothing, finding something holy in every mundane thing, “every plant, pillar, post.” Writes translator Carol Blaizy D’Souza, “I have tried to pay special attention to the play woven into his poetry, to preserve the tenderness, the supple freshness of the narrator’s gaze.” Read on!

Their Eyes are Like That

People who are asleep with half-open eyes
Do not wake them up just in jest; their eyes are like that
Like a looted marketplace

Weekly Dispatches From the Frontlines of World Literature

August 4, 2023 | in Dispatches, News, Weekly Roundup | by Areeb Ahmad, Charlie Ng, and José García Escobar

Dispatches from Hong Kong, Central America, and India!

In this week of dispatches from around the world, our Editors-at-Large report on literary awards, the establishment of a literature museum, and book fairs! From controversy surrounding the new museum in Hong Kong to the most recent Indian texts in translation, read on to learn more!

Charlie Ng, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Hong Kong

Public voices demanding for a museum of literature have been around for years in Hong Kong. On July 22, during the Hong Kong Book Fair 2023, Poon Yiu-ming, the Chairman of the Federation of Hong Kong Writers, announced that the Museum of Hong Kong Literature would be inaugurated in April next year in Wan Chai with support from Chief Executive Lee Ka-chiu and the Hong Kong Jockey Club. Poon petitioned Lee last year on the establishment of a literary museum. However, the announcement has attracted controversy in the literary arena.

The concept of a museum for Hong Kong literature was proposed by a group of local writers and scholars, including Dung Kai-cheung, Tang Siu-wa, Yip Fai, Liu Waitong, and Chan Chi-tak, among others, who formed the “Hong Kong Literature Museum Advocacy Group,” in 2009. A signed petition that successfully solicited signatures from hundreds of local and international Chinese writers and scholars was published in Ming Pao, which proposed to establish a literary museum in the West Kowloon Cultural District. Since the suggestion was not adopted by the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority then, the Advocacy Group proceeded to establish the House of Hong Kong Literature as a non-governmental organization for promoting and preserving Hong Kong literature.