Tuesday, April 21st, 2015
Basavanna
Rich build temples for Shiva
What can I, a poor man, do?
My legs are pillars
My body is the temple
My head makes the golden cupola
Oh, Lord of kUDala sangama
The standing will perish
The moving will stay on.
~
The Shared Mirror remembers Basava!
*Kudalasangama deva: Lord of meeting rivers
Translation by Neelanjana
Tuesday, January 20th, 2015
Jyoti Lanjewar
Translated from Marathi by Shanta Gokhale
Saturday, September 20th, 2014
Gurram Seetaramulu
The language of murder is the same everywhere
But we've to discover a new language to console you, child;
Bloodthirsty Uncle Sam
Has forcibly ended
Your parents' lives.
Now Gaza is bleeding
Your home has fallen;
Time is a butcher, child
Even the orchard of graves
Does not offer you a sapling.
The seed that was trampled
Under the march of the bunker busters
Promised you
A tree
Hope that grows
And offers you shade.
My translation of Gurram Seetaramulu's untitled Telugu poem expressing solidarity with Palestinians.
Gurram Seetaramulu is a doctoral fellow at EFLU.
Friday, April 4th, 2014
Translation from Om Prakash Valmiki's Hindi poem 'Khet Udaas Hain'
The bird is sad
for the emptiness of the forest.
The children are sad
for – hammered like a nail
on the doors of the big houses –
this grief of the bird.
The farm is sad —
that even after a full harvest
he, with mortar on his head,
is going up and down the ladder
against that wall being built.
The girl is sad —
till when can she hide the birth.
And the rented hands
are writing on the wall
'To be sad
is against the spirit of India!'.
खेत उदास हैं / ओमप्रकाश वाल्मीकि
चिड़िया उदास है —
जंगल के खालीपन पर
बच्चे उदास हैं —
भव्य अट्टालिकाओं के
खिड़की–दरवाज़ों में कील की तरह
ठुकी चिड़िया की उदासी पर
खेत उदास हैं —
भरपूर फ़सल के बाद भी
सिर पर तसला रखे हरिया
चढ़–उतर रहा है एक–एक सीढ़ी
ऊँची उठती दीवार पर
लड़की उदास है —
कब तक छिपाकर रखेगी जन्मतिथि
किराये के हाथ
लिख रहे हैं दीवारों पर
'उदास होना
भारतीयता के खिलाफ़ है !'
Source: From here
Akhil Katyal is a writer and translator based in Delhi. He is an Assistant Professor at the Department of English at Shiv Nadar University. He finished his PhD from SOAS, University of London in 2011 and his poetry, fiction and translations have been published widely.
Sunday, November 10th, 2013
Gurram Seetaramulu
Now I understand
Why you tied a pot
Below my mouth, and a broom
Around my arse!
If I spat at your ugly face,
My spit would have been defiled!
I was nourished by amniotic fluid,
Not weaned on vomit like you!
I know everyone is born
From the loins, but weren’t you born
From the mouth!
That’s why you vomit vomit!
Aren’t you a septic tank from head to toe,
With a mouth that has gone to rot
From the chanting of dishonest slokas
For ages!
Aren’t you Manu’s child
Who remains impassive
Even when spat at or
Showered with dirt!
That is why
I won’t defile my spit
By spitting at your face!
My translation of Gurram Seetaramulu's untitled Telugu poem written in protest against an attack by ABVP activists on Prof. S A R Geelani, at a Delhi University seminar in November, 2008.
Gurram Seetaramulu is a doctoral fellow at EFLU.
Friday, April 19th, 2013
Last night
Kanshi Ram appeared in my dream
he raised me from the floor
and placed me on a chair
~~~
The beloved crop
committed suicide
The farmer
only expressed solidarity
~~~
Caste
is a Hydra
If you cut it into pieces
it survives as sub-castes
~~~
Surprisingly
the murderer
looks
exactly like a man!
~~~
God
is not a clay idol:
She is the dalit mother
who changes mud into rotis
~~~
Not everyone
can become a Buddha
It is enough
if he doesn't lose his buddhi.
~~~
Phule
blew the conch:
Shudra
this is the right beginning for you.
~~~
All the milk is from the buffaloes
but the cow is worshipped
Isn't that
varna discrimination among animals?
~~~
How does green grass burn?
Throw in some dogmas,
politics into it
and you'll know how.
~~~
The one who is sold is the boss
and the buyer is the slave!
Marriage
isn't even a business.
My translation of some of Netala Pratap Kumar's Telugu naaniis from his collection of poetry 'daLita naaniilu'.
Naaniis are a new form of short poems, somewhat like haikus, that Telugu poets have been experimenting with in the last two decades or so. Please read more naaniis by Netala Pratap Kumar here.
Dr Kathi Padma Rao, talking about Pratap Kumar's naaniis, says:
Buddhism is the philosophical foundation of 'daLita naaniis'. Ambedkar vaadam (Ambedkarvad) is its sociology. The idiom is of the Dalit wadas. The expression stems from struggles and conflicts that are a part of life. Reading these aphorisms is like listening to my father, or my uncle, or my grandfather.
Tuesday, February 26th, 2013
Baban Londhe
On a plain so vast our eyes could not reach
they would make speeches to their hearts' content
and shout out novel slogans,
blow a breath of hope on our overtired limbs.
At times, to our shanty towns they would come,
careful not to rumple their ironed clothes
crossing our lanes and alleys,
jumping across streaming gutters
when they stopped beside our doors
we felt inexplicably moved.
Viewing our pitiable state they would say
'Truly, this needs a social economic cultural change,
the whole picture needs to be changed.'
Then we would sing
their songs
in sonorous full-throated tones.
Acting innocuous, they would eat
the marrow of our bones.
Days passed by.
Darkness pressed from all sides,
We battled against sunshine and rain
And like fools awaiting salvation
we have stood our ground
and are sunk to the neck in mire.
But now they say plans are worked out
for our salvation
–covering our wasted tombs
in a new shroud
What munificence!
Baban Londhe's Marathi poem 'Shroud' translated by Charudatta Bhagwat. Source: No Entry For The New Sun: Translations from Modern Marathi Poetry. Edited by Arjun Dangle.
Monday, October 22nd, 2012
Black black Sun
Blackish Sun
Blackness blackness Sun
The Sun of the winning path
The Sun of charms
The beautiful Sun
The beautiful Sun
The Sun of the leaf sandals
The Sun of the sowing season
The Sun of the dark clouds
The Sun of rain drops
The little Sun
The Sun singing lullabies
In the eyes of the corn
The Sun on the food basket slung from the beam
The Sun in the clay pot
The Sun of beef curry
The Sun of cold food
The Sun who dances
In the thatched hut
The Sun of the ear of corn
The toddy tapping Sun
The matangi1 Sun
The gosangi1 Sun
The Sun who smiles in the cockleshell mirror
The Sun who dances wearing snail-shell anklets
The Sun of charms
The beautiful Sun
The beautiful Sun
The untouchable Sun
The Sun who was burnt to ashes alive
The Sun who rose from the ashes blazing
The Sun who bled on the fields of Karamchedu
The Sun who learns to walk on the path of blood
The Sun in the gunny sack on the waves of the Tungabhadra2
The Sun who befriends
Swarnamma3of the sweat drops
The Sun who gives his heart
To the crescent moon Yesanna3
The Sun of the flaming spark in Alisamma's4 vows
The Sun of righteous sharpness
In Anil Babu's5 eyes
The Sun of the army of ants in the Sikkolu6 hills
The Sun who swims against the flood of the Godaari7
Shambhuka's decapitated head like Sun
The Sun of Ekalavya's chopped thumb
The handsome Sun with the index finger
The Sun of twilight
The moon like Sun
The Sun of the blue flag
The Sun of black gemstones
The brave Sun
The Sun of daggers
The Sun of tears
The Sun of timeless wisdom
The Sun who has bloomed
On the righteous path of Dhamma
The brave Sun
The Sun of the winning path
My translation of the Telugu poem 'nallaaTi suuriiDu' by K. G. Satyamurthy ('Sivasagar'); from his collection of poetry 'Sivasagar kavitvam'.
The poet says this poem is a continuation of his efforts to define 'daLita soundarya Sastramu' or Dalit aesthetics.
[1] matangi and gosangi: a reference to the Madigas; gosangi also refers to cobblers, ascriptive occupation of the Madigas.
[2] Tungabhadra: a reference to the Tungabhadra canal of the Krishna irrigation system which supplies water to farms in parts of Guntur district. Here, the poet talks about the mutilated bodies of the Dalits killed in the Chunduru massacre (1991) which were wrapped in gunny sacks and thrown into the Tungabhadra canal.
[3] Swarnamma and Yesanna: some common names among Dalits in Coastal Andhra. The poet could also be referring to the Dalits' role in labour (Swarnamma is derived from 'swarNamu' which means gold or wealth or its production, in general); yEsanna refers to Jesus Christ, or spiritual liberation.
[4] Alisamma: was a key witness in the Karamchedu massacre (1985) as her own son Duddu Vandanam was also killed in the massacre. The courageous woman had braved many threats and inducements to speak about the killings in many public meetings and was ultimately also murdered, two years after Karamchedu.
[5] Anil Babu: Kommerla Anil Kumar was a witness in the Chunduru massacre. Balagopal, the human rights activist, had written: Anil Kumar was 'an articulate young dalit who survived the massacre of August 6 to give a graphic account of the incident but was shot dead by the police on September 10 in the course of an attempt by the latter to remove a hunger strike camp set up by the daiits at Chundur.'
[6] Sikkolu hills: Srikakulam; this is a reference to the one of the earliest Naxal movements.
[7]: Godaari: The river Godavari.
Saturday, October 20th, 2012
I shall stand
on the gallows
and indulge
in daydreams
Another world
whispers endearments
on the swing
of my dreams
I shall stand
on the gallows
and envision
sweet dreams
My sweet dreams
shall come true
and the whole world
shall smile
The red army
shall open its wings
and spread
in all directions
The fearless
red army
shall achieve
liberation
The wind
from the villages
shall encircle
the cities
It shall
build graves
for evil spirits
and demons
I shall stand
on the gallows
and gaze
upon another world
History
shall bring down the curtain
on this inhuman
world
On the Himagiri*
of humanity
the red flag
shall fly
From the great flames
of the revolution
the new man
shall rise
In
the Kalahari desert
new lilies
shall bloom
I shall stand
on the gallows
and sing
the radiant song
I shall place
my neck on the executioner's block
and play the lute
of the universe
The seven seas
as one
shall sing
the universal song
The camaraderie
of the hammer and the sickle
shall show
the path of light
Holding the sun
in his palm
the peasant
shall plough the field
The moon
in the factory
shall spin
the wheel
The worker
of the clenched fist
is the helmsman
of the new world!
The glorious
worker
is the wearer
of the crown of stars!
I shall stand
on the gallows
and indulge
in daydreams
Another world
whispers endearments
on the swing
of my dreams
Friends!
Don't spill
your tears
for me!
Don't forget
the struggle!
Don't give up
the red flag
Hold fast to
the gun in your hand
with
great caution!
My blood
shall not go to waste
My death
shall not go to waste
In the pond
of my blood
a new world
shall bloom
The music of life
shall be heard
in the presence
of my death
I shall adorn
my neck with the noose
and hail the revolution!
I shall hail victory!
I shall stand
in the face of death
and sing the song of life!
I shall sing the song of new life!
…………………………………………….
…………………………………………….
Farewell! Farewell!
Farewell to the gallows!
Farewell to the noose!
Prison wall! Farewell!
Serpent hood! Farewell!
…………………………………………….
…………………………………………….
Farewell……..Fa………………….
…………………………………re…….
…………………………………………well!
Fa………………………………………….
My translation of the Telugu poem 'uri paaTa' by K. G. Satyamurthy ('Sivasagar'); from his collection of poetry 'Sivasagar kavitvam'.
*Himagiri: The Himalayas.
Written in May, 1972. The poet says he composed it when two guerilla activists, bahujan peasants, Bhoomaiah and Kishta Goud were sentenced to death.
Friday, October 12th, 2012
The east wind prevails
The east turns red
India opens its eyes
And showers sparks of light! || The east wind blows
A bundle of cold food on the back
An axe in the hand
Mao Tse Tung on the mind
And the red banner in the heart
The peasant has risen!
The peasant roars
As the guerilla! || The east wind blows
As the current in the wind
As the water in the stream
As the fish in the water
As one among the people
The peasant has risen
The peasant sounds the battle conch
As the guerilla || The east wind blows
As a poisoned arrow in the enemy's heart
As a spear in the traitor's bed
As the fierce daring of the axe
That breaks the necks of the rich
Yours is the exemplary courage
Yours is the righteous battle! || The east wind blows
Let the machine guns ring
Let the toxic flames spread
Let many sorrows and burdens
Surround you and rage
You stand as a rock!
Yours is the high road!
Yours is the people's path! || The east wind blows
The east wind prevails
The east turns red
India opens its eyes
And showers sparks of light! || The east wind blows
My translation of the Telugu song 'tuurpu pavanam viicenOy' by K. G. Satyamurthy ('Sivasagar')– from his collection of poetry 'sivasagar kavitvam'. Written in 1968.
The poet says:
This is the first song I had written during my journey in the revolutionary movement. It conveys the message of the slogan, 'The east wind prevails over the west'. This was a slogan of Chinese communist party during the Cultural Revolution. The slogan and the song express the aspiration that the east wind, or the gathering revolution, should prevail over the west; that the eastern nations- Asia, Africa, South America- should subdue Europe and the west.