Indians write in many languages including Indian English, and speak in many more voices, God only knows how many. It is said that there are at least over 6,500 languages/dialects in India. As such, can we really gauge and appreciate all the diverse literary expressions in India without having their English translations, albeit imperfect in relation to the local words and the associated feelings? Talented, multi-lingual members of English Literary Societies should endeavour to serve this purpose of unearthing the local literary expressions. As Jhumpa Lahiri has rightly said, translate literature that you love and admire!
Here I take up Srirangam Srinivasa Rao, popularly known as Sri Sri, an erstwhile Telugu poet and lyricist, famous for his progressivist, romantic, existential and surrealist poetry, and patriotic and rebellious songs for movies. He was the first President of Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee which was formed in 1974.
I met him forty years ago and I cannot forget the power and glory of his own recitation of his poetry, how it can stir our blood. He was a great glocal poet, influenced by Edgar Allan Poe, Paul Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, Paul Eluvard, Jean Paul Sartre, Emile Verhaeren, Louis Aragon, James Joyce, Dylan Thomas, and Russian revolutionary poets, and chose not to remain a slave to rhyme and meter or unnecessary metaphors and similies. The world’s sorrow was his sorrow. Most of his poems, written in 1930s, reflect the struggles of a common man in times of draught, famines, inflation, etc.
The day after his death in 1983, the obituaries noted that “He was for Andhra Pradesh what Nazrul Islam was for Bangladesh, Pablo Neruda for Latin America, and Mayakovsky for Soviet Russia. He remains the poet of the revolution, the ever ephemeral herald of the future”, and that he was a splendid alchemist creating marvellous and superb Telugu creations that absorbed Eastern and Western poetic influences.
Short and long English translations of some of his works are found as follows:
1. Another World,
Another World,
Another World is Calling
March forward
Let’s surge, ahead and ahead.
2. Even I
offered a firewood
to the world’s fire
Even I
provided a tear
to the world’s rain
Even I
gave a cry
to the world’s roar.
3. Whichever country’s history you see
What reason is there to be proud?
Entire history of human race
is exploitation of others
Entire history of human race
is an exercise in mutual destruction
Entire history of human race
is drenched in the blood of the wars
Terror as its principal
Ghostly herds as its equivalent
The entire history of human race is
leeching of the penniless
The mighty made slaves
out of the meek race
The murderers became owners of the earth
and climbed to glory in history
A place that is not a battle field
cannot be found anywhere on earth
Entire past is wet with blood
If not, with tears
Extinguished families
decimated populations
cries of the helpless
are echoing history
Malice, selfishness
connivance, jealousies, conflicts
Armed with tricks and disguises
proved the course of the history
Chengiz Khan, Thamarlane
Nadirshaw, Ghazni, Gori
Sikander—what does it matter who they are?
Each one a grand murderer
Vikings, white Huns
Sithians, Parsis
Pindaris and Thugs built
a bridge of swords to the time
In the dark ages of ignorance
in hunger and passion
guided by unknown and extreme forces
marched people
everything is their own achievement
they are the lords of the earth
built kingdoms
made artificial laws
with the rise of other forces
fell down as houses of cards!
from the forces engaged in mutual battle
rose the history
The deception that went on for ever
The heinous crimes of the mighty
the schemes of the rich
even now? Can’t be allowed from now on
A social justice based on exploitation of
one person by another person
one race by a different race
Even now? Can’t go from now on
The rikshaw-wallah in China
The mine worker of Czech
The ship-cleaner of Ireland
All the down-trodden peoples
Hotentots, Zulus, Negroes
The different races of all continents
Will broadcast in one voice
The true nature of the history
Which battle took place why?
Which kingdom lasted how long
The dates, and the documents
These are not the essence of history
This queen’s love affairs
The expenses of that invasion
schemes and accounts
These are not the essence of history,
My friend!
In the civilisation on the banks of Nile
what was the life of the common man?
In building the Taj Mahal
who were the labourers who lifted the stones?
In the invasion of the dynasty
what are the braveries of the common people?
It is not the palanquin of the king, my friend,
who are the bearers that carried it?
In the twilights of the history
what was the development of human story?
What country, in what time
achieved what grand truths?
Which sculpture? What literature?
Which science? What music?
To which rays is this renunciation?
Which dream? What conquest?
4. That day, the white man called you Bhagat Singh
Today, the brown man calls you a Naxalite
Tomorrow, everyone will call you the Morning Star
Inquilab Inquilab Inquilab Zindabad.
BY : Annavajhula J.C. Bose, PhD
Department of Economics, SRCC
REFERENCES :
https://groups.google.com/g/soc.culture.indian/c/a0LXa9l6OXw
Sai Priya Kodidala. 2020. Firstpost. March 25.
The New Indian Express. 2009. May 1.
www.chaibisket.com, 2015, April 30.
www.thehansindia.com, 2013. November 13.
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