Burmese Days Wins Highest Literary Award in Burma

RANGOON—Nearly eight decades after George Orwell’s “Burmese Days” first hit bookshelves, the book has won the highest literary award in the country where it is set: Burma.

The Burmese Ministry of Information announced on Sunday that the unabridged Burmese translation of the British writer’s first novel was the winner of the 2012 National Literary Award’s informative literature (translation) category.

The annual official award is given to books in 16 different categories. A translation of Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” won this year’s award for creative literature.

The translator, Maung Myint Kywe, told The Irrawaddy he considers “Burmese Days”—set in a small British colonial outpost in Upper Burma—a scathing portrait of the imperious attitudes of both the British and Burmese.

His intention in translating the book, which was first published in 1934, was partially for young people to learn about how the Burmese were discriminated against under British rule, he said. “But Orwell is unbiased, even though he himself is British. He has fairly portrayed how bad the British were, as well as we Burmese, too,” said the translator, whose other work includes translations international best-sellers and self-help books.

“I thought the Burmese should read it, and so I translated it,” said the 79-year old translator, who is as old as the first edition of “Burmese Days.”

Read the full Article at Irrawaddy.org