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Our Voices: An
Anthology of SAARC Poetry
It is this latter category of translations into English that sometimes suffers, since there is so much very different in the structure and ethos of one language and another. Does the translation sound authentic enough, does it carry the flavour and texture of the original, and does your rendition have the same lyrical content, are some of the questions that the translator has to ask himself or herself all the time. The subjects are varied and so is the treatment, with every poet seeing a picture or painting in his own way. Pakistani Urdu poet Ahmad Fares advocating the revival of the age-old ties that once bound the common land tells his "Indian Friends", "Friends! I have come to your country this time/Not to meet any music company/Nor either to recite my poetry/If it is a question of your ego/I extend my hand in friendship, first!" Well said Faraz Sahib. In Story of Gul Badshah, Zehra Nigah from Karachi writes about the futility of war and the killings of her father, brother and sister: "In return they took/My brother’s toiling arm/On which was tied a black thread/To ward off evil/My sister’s small foot/On which the henna was still radiant. People say this war is for peace/In such peaceful war, the assailants/Leave the children without hands/and feet." Punjabi poet Amrita Pritam is in her sublime best at love in the translation of her poem I will Meet you Yet Again’, "I will meet you yet again/How and Where/I know not/Perhaps I will become a/figment of your imagination/and maybe spreading myself/in a mysterious line/on your canvas/I will keep gazing at you." Gulzar, filmmaker and lyricist, in much the same vein says this in Moonlight, "The sighs of moonlight/have been searching for you/many a long century..." Nirupama Dutt in the "Identity" series in The Black Woman speaks about the feelings of the dark complexioned, "The dreams of a black woman/are very fair/and her truth pitch dark—The dreams of a black woman/fly away like white birds/to pick bits of warm moonlight/and scatter them in her lap/A black woman longs for/a fair child." Former Prime Minister V. P. Singh is not only a painter, but also a sensitive poet. In his love poem September Shades, he writes, "Blossoms/Whispered/You are in town—Don’t light the lamp/Our shadows will part—Twigs quivered/Dewdrops fell/How did they sense/What I felt." The subjects that the poets are concerned about are indeed varied and many. This anthology covers the unpleasant, unsavoury, dark side of human behaviour and the brutal truth that has plagued some of the countries and the people of this region, for example, the killings of those in the minority in our country. Be it be the killings of the Muslims in Gujarat, or that of the Sikhs in 1984. Girdhar Rahti’s Delhi 1984 is there, but it is a weak, impotent and helpless escape into non-reality. The poets and writers concerned are expected to raise their voice into a full-blooded roar and not whimper. How easily everyone has forgotten the Sikh widows of 1984 in Delhi. Are many of our poets these days just concerned with the theme of love, which in any case is a very safe subject for anybody to write upon! And, doesn’t a poet think it worth his while to expose many of the highly placed, corrupt politicians who have so methodically eaten into the fabric of a sane society, which craved for good governance! True, J. P. Das shines in Gandhi, Paash in his A Jail Poem, and Harris Khalique is brave with the Generals and the Army in Pakistan, but these, I fear, are lone voices and getting fewer by the year. Contemporary poets will have to stay in touch with reality of the present times no matter how unpalatable, if they are to stay relevant. though I disagree with Dutt who proclaims that "poets alone (who) have the right and the courage to tell the truth". Really! What about other writers of fiction and non-fiction? The projection of the Foundation of SAARC Writers, is not necessary, when all that the reader is really interested in is in reading some good poetry There are others in this anthology who have written about the struggle and tribulation of the days of Partition, the war for independence in Bangladesh, the military rule in Pakistan or the suffering of the people in Bhutan. These are the voices of some who have come to the notice of the editors, and found space in Nirupama Dutt’s near-solo (Ajeet Cour obviously doesn’t write poetry) effort. I have a feeling that Dutt will now go looking for more new voices in Asia, who will tell the story of their people who live in hope and are determined to change the world for the better. Theirs are the voices, which will just not die. |
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