In response to Manjushree Thapa\'s Nepaliliterature column ("Mid-column blues," #95) I want to first extend a note of appreciation for the consistent efforts she has made to make Nepali poems accessible to an English reading public (When is Nepali literature ever the subject of conversation in postcolonial/comparative literature circles?), and second, to reinstate the point she makes too subtly: translation is never a neutral act of writing or reading.

In the 6-14 June edition of Nepali Times Kanak Dixit ("The Valley of Halla," #46) cited the last six lines of Bhupi Sherchan's epic poem "This is a country of hearsay and rumour" to provoke a critique regarding the proliferation and dissemination of rumours and conspiracy theories in the wake of the royal family killings. Dixit traced the circulation of rumour to the "mediocrity" of the Nepali intellect.

In what I consider to be a distinctly political move (and one that I happen to agree with entirely) Thapa provided the Times with a complete translation of Sherchan's poem, thereby allowing us to read the last six lines in the context of the rest of the poem. She thus revealed Sherchan's position on rumour to be very different from the one implied by Dixit.

Rumour here was not being portrayed as the reflection of a vacant, parochial, extraneous Nepali psyche (Dixit's version), but rather the consequence and defining feature of the losses and contradictions inherent in modernity. So let it not be said again that Thapa's translations, or translations in general, are not used or interpreted through multiple political registers that are direct commentaries on the state of current politics. Furthermore, let the writer be assured that she has more than one curious reader visiting her columns. And this one is grateful for the effort.

Sepideh Bajracharya,
Cambridge, USA

. I have a limited knowledge of Nepali literature, but over the years, I have read and been fascinated by the works of Bhupi Sherchan and the translations of his poetry into English by Rupa Joshi (cca 1985), Kunda Dixit (cca 1978), and recently by Manjushree Thapa. A friend of mine (a white, male blue-collar worker) was in Nepal recently and just read me Manjushree Thapa's "Mid-column blues" (#95) in its entirety over the phone. Do you need any more encouragement?

Nirmal Niroula,
University of Kentucky, Lexington, USA