A late addition to the Book Fair, acclaimed Indian author Vikram Seth sat with Hay Festival founder Peter Florence for a wideranging conversation about his literary career. “If it weren’t for translation, I wouldn’t be a writer,” he said, explaining: “I stumbled upon a translation of an 8th century nature poet and was so affected and moved the work, it motivated me to study Chinese,” set told interviewer Peter Florence, founder fo the Hay Festival. “Then, later, when I was study to be an economist, I stumbled into a bookstore and I discovered Eugene Onegin and Pushkin. It’s that encounter that led me to want to write a novel in verse. I had an obsessive wish to do it. Pushkin has an unusual stanza — it swung and beat upon my heart for years. It is such an innovative and unusual book. I had to try and imitate it if anything else. First I wanted to write a travel book about my time in China, then I wanted to write the novel in verse.”
Related Posts
