By Alicia Nemiccolo MacLeay '97

Despite being an award-winning and prolific author, Tiwana is unrecognized in many literary circles beyond her own region, so Singh translated Tiwana's novella Katha Kuknas Di into English to help introduce Punjabi literature to the English-speaking public. The translation will be published later this year as The Tale of the Phoenix.

Singh says The Tale of the Phoenix "unfolds the hopes and tensions of men and women whether they stay home in India or migrate to the West" and that Tiwana's characters "do not give in to definite categories-Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist or Muslim; they are humans." Their dilemmas, obligations and sentiments are intrinsic parts of the society Singh was born in.

Singh did not simply convert Punjabi into English. Instead she says she tried to echo in English what Tiwana had written in Punjabi and, if at all, changed English to fit the Punjabi syntax and Tiwana's simple, direct style.

In addition to "discovering" kinships between languages, translation offers Singh a way to share her heritage with her Western students and colleagues. "Through translation, I can take them back to the different and distant world in which I was born," wrote Singh in the novella's introduction. "The process of translation allows me to move back and forth between Punjab and Maine, Punjabi and English."