After watching the drama series The Love You Gave Me [你给 我的喜欢] [Nǐ gěi wǒ de xǐhuān] on YouTube, I started searching for an English Translation of the novel of the same name by Shi Ding Rou. But I could only find one on Wattpad shared by someone called Phyu Pwint. It is a translation by Google Translator. But the fiction was poignant and the literary genius of the author, Shi Ding Rou, was well manifested throughout the translation of the book. The translation quality and the literary richness I have already discussed on my blog months ago at : https://projectionofnaught.blogspot.com/2023/09/the-drama-series-and-book-love-you-give.html
Today this post is about my changing reading habits and how Phyu Pwint inspired and influenced my reading habits. While searching for an English or Bengali translation of “Nǐ gěi wǒ de xǐhuān”, I was becoming restless in frustration. Here we are hungry readers waiting for a book and there the publishing house has been failing to find enough business with the product which is a translation of “Nǐ gěi wǒ de xǐhuān” and, hence, there is no proper translation available in the market.
The negatives for the viability of the translated version of “Nǐ gěi wǒ de xǐhuān”, as a product, are strong. The book has not yet been recognized by mainstream global media and has not been awarded with huge brands of awards. Also the author is yet to be recognized in general with huge international brands of awards which could make her a world famous author. And my fingers were getting tired from typing search queries to get the book, “Nǐ gěi wǒ de xǐhuān”.
Phyu Pwint relieved me. Their posts on Wattpad helped me find great solace and enormous inspiration to translate the book, “Nǐ gěi wǒ de xǐhuān”, to Bengali to reflect my admiration for the great literary work.
Don't ask me who Phyu Pwint is. I don’t know their country of residence, their country of birth, their mother tongue or their pronouns. All I know is that we can communicate with each other in English and they have been a great help in finding the books that I would like to read.
Phyu Pwint taught me that language is no longer a barrier. The book I am looking for could be available to be read on any browser without technical difficulties of the operating systems of the devices that I use for reading - an Android phone, a Windows Laptop, or an iPad. All I need on the device is a Wattpad app or Google Chrome Browser with Google Translate App plug-in.
And voilà.
A page of the book written in Chinese/ Mandarin or Italian or Portuguese is translated into English in a few seconds, sometimes within fractions of a second, just like the time that we spent from pressing the switch on the board till the light bulb turns on, depending on the technology of the site that hosts the book.
This post is a reflection of my admiration for the readers like Phyu Pwint who helped me cross the language barrier with technology to read any book that catches my attention. All through the past decades I was holding a grudge that I get to read only the books that I am fed through the brouhaha of mainstream media and the publishing houses that are bedfellows. Now I am feeling my freedom of reading. I feel like being truly independent in my reading choices and I feel like shouting on top of my voice “Screw Publishing Biggies. F*ck mainstream spoon feeding of culture and trends.”
In the beginning, I thought that I would write the same post in Bangla (Bengali). But feeling lazy. Please use your browser translator. They are no more that bad. You would get the essence.
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