3 weeks ago
Translator Augusto Pinto: written language belief harming Konkani movement
A translator is someone who rewrites a book in another language so more people can read it.
Augusto Pinto is a translator who lives in Goa, a small place in India.
He translated a book written by Hema Naik, who wrote in the Konkani language.
The book was first called 'Bhogdand,' but Pinto gave it a new English name, 'Leslie's Broken Guitar Strings.'
He changed the title because the old word meant many different things in English and could confuse readers.
The story happens in a village in Goa and is about families, money problems, and people moving away to find work.
Konkani is a language that can be written in different scripts, like Devanagari and Roman letters.
Some people argue about which script is best, but Pinto thinks this fight is not very useful.
He believes talking and speaking are just as important as writing.
He hopes that new technology, like AI, can help all Konkani scripts and dialects live together peacefully.
Augusto Pinto's English translation of Hema Naik's Konkani novel 'Bhogdand' (1997) was published as 'Leslie's Broken Guitar Strings' by the Sahitya Akademi in 2025.
Pinto changed the title because 'Bhogdand' has no single-word English equivalent, and a title using 'lust' or 'libido' risked misleading readers into thinking the book was erotica.
The novel is set in Jua village in Goa during the 1980s and 1990s and deals with migration, familial conflicts, gender roles, and economic hardship.
Pinto calls Goa's Romi-Devanagari 'script war' linguistically senseless, saying scripts are not languages and that privileging written over spoken language harms the Konkani movement.
Pinto says AI-facilitated transliteration could make the Devanagari-Romi rivalry redundant and allow Konkani dialects such as Antruzi and Bardezi to coexist.
- Who
- Augusto Pinto, translator and retired Associate Professor of English at SS Dempo College of Commerce and Economics in Goa, and Hema Naik, author of the Konkani novel 'Bhogdand.'
- What
- A conversation about Pinto's English translation of Hema Naik's Konkani novel, retitled 'Leslie's Broken Guitar Strings' and published by the Sahitya Akademi.
- Where
- Goa, India, with the novel set in the island village of Jua on the Konkan coast.
- When
- The translation was published in 2025; the original novel appeared in 1997, and the story is set in the 1980s and 1990s.
- Why
- To make Konkani literature accessible to English readers and to discuss translation, Goan literature, and the politics of Konkani scripts and dialects.
Devanagari Konkani proponents
Romi Konkani proponents
Standard script and dialect for Konkani
Devanagari Konkani proponents
Devanagari should be the standard script, with Konkani standardised around the Antruzi dialect.
Romi Konkani proponents
Romi (Roman script) Konkani should be recognised, with the Bardezi dialect preferred by its protagonists.
Key facts
- Translator
- Augusto Pinto
- Author
- Hema Naik
- Original title
- Bhogdand (1997)
- Translated title
- Leslie's Broken Guitar Strings (2025)
- Publisher
- Sahitya Akademi
- Original language
- Nagri (Devanagari) Konkani
- Setting
- Jua village, Goa, in the 1980s and 1990s
- Themes
- Migration, familial conflicts, gender roles, economic hardship
Quotes
Augusto Pinto
Goan translator and former associate professor
“It delegitimises all the regional and social dialects that Konkani comprises, including the dialects of the Velips and the Gawdas and the Padyes; the Saxtti and Perni variety and those of Sattari.”
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“The belief that written language is of greater importance than spoken language is not just mistaken but is doing great harm to the Konkani movement.”
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Sources
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