Image 01
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Bodhi Tree (pimpalvrksa)

January 2nd, 2012 by admin

Here is a settlement.

Houses with red-tiled roofs,

planned roads,

gardens and lawns.

 

It is a laboratory to mold people…

Minds are being forged

        in what sort of furnace?

Smiles on faces and poison in hearts,

no harmony between thought and action.

The same old customary drill is on.

 

Those calculating faces,

somewhat sophisticated,

are going to change their masks and come out

singing the arati of my welcome.

 

I am satisfied that

I have sown the seeds

But here they have already started the preparations

     for the resistance…

I am doubtful:

Will at least one seed sprout?

Bodhi tree…………..

 

Mina Gajbhiye's Marathi poem 'pimpalvrksa' translated by Shubhangi Apte and Slyvie Martinez with some changes by Eleanor Zelliot. 

About this poem, Eleanor Zelliot writes "seems to indicate the touching faith that the seed of Buddhism might possibly overcome the traditionalism and hypocrisy of Hinduism." 

Source: Images of women in Maharastrian Literature and Religion. Edited by Anne Feldhaus.

Posted in Marathi, Poetry, Translations | Comments Off on Bodhi Tree (pimpalvrksa)

O Great Man (mahapurusa)

December 6th, 2011 by admin

O Great Man

Those who strewed thorns in your path

today offer you flowers

and sing your praises

— now this is really too much —

 

During the dark procession of time

you lit the flowers of light

but these imposters, these villians

crushed, extinguished those flowers.

Today those flowers have turned into a wildfire

and those villains are fanning that wildfire

— oh now this is too much–

 

Like an elephant ramming a gate

you pounded on the temple door

the stones of the temple shook.

Under the holy name of religion

they long ago enslaved the gods

Your honest painful claim

of the right to see the gods

was crushed, thrown out of the village.

Now they decorate the great tree

that sprouted on that spot

–now this is really too much–

 

It is clear that nature belongs to all

but these people bought that too.

Every drop of water in Chawdar Tank

was stamped with their name,

the alert watchman of this culture

guarded the imprisoned water.

They feared that your touch

would poison the water and

they anointed you with your blood

when you were dying of thirst.

And now they pour water

into the mouth of your stone effigy

–oh now this is really too much–

 

Hira Bansode's Marathi poem Mahapurusa was first published in Sakal in 1980. Source: Images of Maharastrian women in literature and religion. Edited by Anne Feldhaus.

Tags:
Posted in Marathi, Poetry, Translations | Comments Off on O Great Man (mahapurusa)

Seashell

November 24th, 2011 by naren bedide

Don't see me

as a useless blind shell

and throw me away

in disgust

 

For a minute

hold me to your ear

with patience.

Through me

you can listen to

infinite roars of the ocean.

Though you've separated

my ocean from me

I've assimilated the whole ocean in myself.

Whatever inference

you may draw from that roar,

I speak that language.

 

My translation of Sikhamani's Telugu poem 'aalcippa' from his collection of poetry, muvvala chEtikarra. 

Tags:
Posted in Poetry, Telugu, Translations | Comments Off on Seashell

Begumpura

November 4th, 2011 by admin

The regal realm with the sorrowless name:

they call it Begumpura, a place with no pain,

No taxes or cares, none owns property there,

no wrongdoing, worry, terror, or torture.

Oh my brother, I've come to take it as my own,

my distant home where everything is right.

That imperial kingdom is rich and secure,

where none are third or second – all are one;

They do this or that, they walk where they wish,

they stroll through fabled palaces unchallenged.

Oh, says Ravidas, a tanner now set free,

those who walk beside me are my friends. 

 

Sant Ravidas's poem from the book Songs of the Saints of India, edited by Hawley and Juergensmeyer, page 32 [AG3]. Gail Omvedt in her book, Seeking Begumpura, writes "It (begumpura poem) was an expression, in the early modern age, of a utopia, perhaps the first one in Indian literature. In some ways it seems to stand alone, yet it was a harbinger -of the kind of social vision that would underlie all the later struggles and theorizing of anticaste inetllectuals.  Begumpura was, for Ravidas, an imagined city, without geographical location, without a history: it was to be a later task to build it in space and time."  

Tags:
Posted in Hindi, Poetry, Translations | Comments Off on Begumpura

To arrange words

October 24th, 2011 by admin

To arrange words
In some order
Is not the same thing
As the inner poise
That's poetry.

The truth of poetry
Is the truth
Of being.
It's an experience
Of truth.

No ornaments
Survive
A crucible.
Fire reveals
Only molten
Gold.

Says Tuka
We are here
To reveal.
We do not waste
Words. 

 

Sant Tukaram's poem translated by Dilip Chitre

Tags:
Posted in Marathi, Poetry, Translations | Comments Off on To arrange words

Sattimurram Pulavar’s poem

October 5th, 2011 by admin

Stork! Stork! Red-legged stork!

Red-legged stork with the coral beak that tapers

Like the cleft root of the fruitful palmyrah tree!

When you and your wife have bathed at the southern cape,

If you should return to the North,

Stop at the home of Sattimurram at our village,

And tell my wife, who must be intently watching 

The clicking lizard on the rain-wet wall,

That in the city of our king Maran,

without a garment, and shivering from the cold,

Covering my body with my hands,

Embracing my bosom with my legs,

And sighing like a snake within a case,

Me, you have seen here. 

 

Source: A history of Tamil literature, section 10, The people's poets, page 229. Translation by authors C Jesudasan and Hephzibah Jesudasan. About this poem and poet, the authors write: 

For the Tamils cherish the memory, not of these (sittar poets), as much as of those isolated wandering bards, who with simplicity and sincerity have touched on some of the tenderest chords of life. Many of these poets could not have even been recognized by the Sanskrit standards and several were downright beggars. Avvai had said 'When hunger comes, everything else takes wing'. Hunger had come to the people, yet poetry had not abandoned them. 

A humble poet, called Sattimurra-p-pulavar, has left a very beautiful poem supposed to be addressed by a wandering bard to a stork. It not only shows the sorrows of the Tamil bard at the time, but it is exquisite poetry, with the delicate aroma of Sangam literature on it, and as a sheer picture of poverty excelled only by Perumcittirnar's words to Kumanan. Though we cannot translate the diction, we shall render into English the idea of this poem, which is found today in most anthologies of miscellaneous Tamil verses. 

Tags:
Posted in Poetry, Tamil, Translations | Comments Off on Sattimurram Pulavar’s poem

I am not your data

September 19th, 2011 by admin

by Abhay Xaxa

 

I am not your data, nor am I your vote bank,

I am not your project, or any exotic museum project,

I am not the soul waiting to be harvested,

Nor am I the lab where your theories are tested.

 

I am not your cannon fodder, or the invisible worker,

Or your entertainment at India habitat center,

I am not your field, your crowd, your history,

your help, your guilt, medallions of your victory.

 

I refuse, reject, resist your labels,

your judgments, documents, definitions, 

your models, leaders and patrons,

because they deny me my existence, my vision, my space.

 

Your words, maps, figures, indicators,

they all create illusions and put you on a pedestal

from where you look down upon me. 

 

So I draw my own picture, and invent my own grammar,

I make my own tools to fight my own battle,

For me, my people, my world, and my Adivasi self! 

 

 

Abhay Xaxa, age 34, born and brought up in Jashpur District of Chhattisgarh, is a researcher-activist based in Delhi. He is currently with the Indian Institute of Dalit Studies, working on the status report of Adivasi in India after completing his post graduation in Anthropology from University of Sussex.  At a very young age, Abhay became part of the Adivasi movement and in this interview he shares his struggles, vision and dreams for the empowerment of his community. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tags:
Posted in English, Poetry | Comments Off on I am not your data

New dream

September 2nd, 2011 by naren bedide

For having skinned the five spirits
by driving a nail into the sky
another into the patala
and soaking the hide in the seven seas you
deserve those sun and moon gods
as sandals for your feet!
In hunger
or in humiliation
head bowed
you stitch
your skin into shoes
Grandfather!
I dream
that this world
should turn into a strap
and kiss
your big toe.

 

 

My translation of Dr.  Yendluri Sudhakar's kotta kala from 'kaitunakala danDem', a collection of Madiga poetry.

Tags:
Posted in Poetry, Telugu, Translations | Comments Off on New dream

Lost Angels

August 19th, 2011 by naren bedide

It's not just milk
but crores of sins are white too
only, adulterated by a few tears

Glass-eyed swans
tell me about the color of tears, not the portion of water
you're the angels
who slipped off a tipsy heaven
reveling in the waters, you must have slurped the oceans
tell me about the taste of tears
in god's deep embrace
you must have perspired a little
tell me about the scent of tears

I, like the dark cloud
could rain down a flood
on how tears feel

It's not just jasmines
hand-gloves are white too
only, stained by a little blood

Having washed your hands, emperors
before you crown me with thorns
show me a thimbleful of dark blood
you are the serpent kings of the primeval jungle
you must have bitten the dust, where man got hurt
tell me about the taste of the blood that spilled
when you caressed the warrior's back as a whip
the sandalwood trees must have swooned
tell me about the scent of blood

Having ascended the cross
like a throne, I, on the other hand
when asked about the blood
will guide your fingers through the holes in my palms

Not just the seven colors
the four varnas mixed are white too
only, darkened by a little fifthness

Raised by the crumbs of angarajya to a finer varna, O arch sudras
tell me about the color of power
from God's feet to his shoulders
you've climbed, oppressors
manu's dharma in your moneypurses
hoarded, of course,
tell me about the taste of power

In the scum-laden lake
what springs forth doesn't reflect your face
tell me about the scent of power

I, who you have never considered human
if asked about the feel of power
shall unpeel its skin, to illustrate.

My translation of Satish Chandar's Telugu poem  'Lost Angels'

Tags:
Posted in Poetry, Telugu, Translations | Comments Off on Lost Angels

Farewell to Arms

August 9th, 2011 by admin

Let us put aside the arms and convene a round table conference.
We have no nation, no identity,
We have no land to till, no house to live in.
You did not leave even a blade of grass for us since times of Aryavart.
OK, we would forget that.
Are you ready to break the walls that you constructed in the village?
We are ready to dissolve like sugar in milk.
Will you tolerate if your Draupadi selects our son Galiya as her husband?
And will your Arjun accept our daughter Raili if she comes as new Chitrangada?
Let us pull the dead cattle turn by turn, do you agree?
We are ready to eat your leftover food,
Will you eat leftover food at our marriage ceremony?
Let us remove provisions for reservation from our constitution.
Our Magan and Chhagan will compete on open merit basis,
But will you give admission to them in your convent schools?
Let us put aside arms,
and till the fertile land of our country together.
But will you give us half the share of the harvest?

G K Vankar's translation of Pravin Gadhavi's Gujarati poem Farewell to arms  from his poetry collection The Bayonet (1985).

Pravin Gadhavi, born 13 May 1951, is an IAS Officer in the Government of Gujarat. A prolific writer, his collections of poetry are The Bayonet (1985), Padchhayo (1996) and Tunir (2002). His short story collections are Pratiksha (1995), Antarvyatha (1995) and Surajpankhi. The last publication was given Govt. of Gujarat Award.

Tags:
Posted in Gujarati, Poetry, Translations | Comments Off on Farewell to Arms

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Copyright © 2024 by The Shared Mirror. All Rights Reserved. Subscribe to The Shared Mirror's feed.
Aggiornare Theme by GeekDesignGirl

Welcome The Shared Mirror

Log in

Lost your password?