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Slightly off the topic 'Ulysses': I have been looking at some old messages on this list and came across one from Gayatri stating that it was unlikely that C (no real mystery - it is Chitra Panniker who made me panic when I first heard of her incredible project)could be persuaded to join our list. What fascinates me is: Has anyone actually read the translations of some chapters of FW that appeared in a Malayalam kavita journal? If so, it would be great to hear of the reader's impressions - they need not be scholarly. Rasik Rasik: Yes--here is the information on Chitra Panikker. She studied with Fritz Zinn at the Joyce Foundation in Zurich and finished her doctorate at the University of Kerala with Dr. Ayyappa Panikker (a most funny man incidentally--he told me once he can't help it-- "it is in my name you see--pun-i-kker!) in Trivandrum. Two years ago when I met Chitra when we were both in Trivandrum on vacation she had been teaching at the University of Hyderabad or at the CIEFL --she might be at the second place now--I am not sure. We are really bad at corresponding--Responding (when we meet) is so much easier! In any case, you will find Chitra's translation of *Ulysses* in the University journal entitled *Kerala Kavita*--I have read her translations of Telemachus, Nestor and part of Proteus. The translation is very good. Joyce translates well into other languages since so much of it is "vaay mozhi" or ear for speech--apart from the literary and political references. She is doing Wake in tandem with Ulysses and I don't think Wake chapters have been published yet. I could be wrong though. A preliminary attempt to get a hold of Chitra for purposes of the group has failed and I have been so busy that I haven't really pursued it since. I shall find out from mother where she is when I call home next. But there is no need to panic at Chitra or her project-- Joyce, for all his complexity, is not at all inaccessible as a writer I think--one has to be rigorous and one must be interested in technique but he is eminently accessible. Joyce is more than anything else I think really funny-- tendentiously funny that is--remember "Lawn Tennyson!"? Freud's scheme of tendentious versus non-tendentious humor could come in very handy to look at Joyce's humor I think. So enjoy reading Ulysses, don't panic, take your time, Gifford's book is pretty good for notes, and don't worry too much about Joyce scholars. There is a really bad movie about Joyce by an Irish film maker whose name I forget now but which I reviewed for my paper so I can look it up--James Joyce's Women--I think it was called. Not at all Joycean in spirit I felt. Check that out as well. And of course Brenda Maddox's book about Nora is pretty good too. Here is a nice poem by Joyce: "I hear an Army" (From *Pomes Penyeach*--darlingly lyrical): I hear an army charging upon the land, And the thunder of horses plunging, foam about their knees: Arrogant, in black armor, behind them stand, Disdaining the reins, with fluttering whips, the charioteers. They cry unto the night their battle-name: I moan in sleep when I hear afar their whirling laughter. They cleave the gloom of dreams, a blinding flame, Clanging, clanging upon the heart as upon an anvil. They come shaking in triumph their long, green hair: They come out of the sea and run shouting by the shore. My heart, have you no wisdom thus to despair? My love, my love, my love, why have you left me alone? Gayatri
Not what you asked for but . . . For translations of Ulysses see http://www.scicli.com/joyce/ Paper on "Ulysses" in Chinese http://www.theatlantic.com//issues/95sep/ulyss.htm More translations of all work http://www2.pair.com/mgraz/transactions/Joyce/ Russian trans: http://www.ireland.com/literature/bloomsday/ulysses/serg.htm Mike
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