‘Hiroshima, Ajneya (S.H. Vatsyayan), Signatures, ed. trans. by the poet K. Satchidanandan, NBT, Delhi, 2003.
‘Ode to Waris Shah’, Amrita Pritam, trans. Darshan Singh Maini, Vikas Books, Studies in Punjabi Poetry, Delhi, 1979.
From Unniyarcha and Aromal Unni, Anon, trans. Kamala Das, Sahitya Akademi Medieval Indian Literature (Vol. 3), ed. K. Ayyappa Paniker, Sahitya Akademi, Delhi, 1999.
‘Gaddi Aa Gayi’, Imtiaz Dharker, Bloodaxe Books, UK. ‘The Morning of Freedom’, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, trans. Kathleen Grant Jaeger and Baidar Bakht, Sahitya Akademi Modern Indian Literature, ed. K.M. George, Sahitya Akademi, Delhi, 1994. ‘Flight’, Robin Ngangon, trans. by the poet.
‘How Do I Know This Is My Son?’, Anon, trans. P. Maruthanayagam, Ancient Indian Literature, Sahitya Akademi, Delhi, 2000. ‘Here Comes God’, Tenneti Suri, trans. Velcheru Narayana Rao, Twentieth Century Telugu Poetry, ed. Velcheru Narayana Rao, OUP, Delhi, 2002.
‘Philistines’, K. Ayyappa Paniker, Signatures, ed. K. Satchidanandan, NBT, Delhi, 2003.
‘Elegy (for Anci),’ Auvaiyar, trans. A.K. Ramanujan, Poems of Love and War, ed. A.K. Ramanujan, Columbia Universiy, Columbia, 1985. ‘A Certain Fiction Bit Me’, Khadar Mohinuddin, trans. Velcheru Narayana Rao, Twentieth Century Telugu Poetry, ed. Velcheru Narayana Rao, OUP, Delhi, 2002.
‘Satirical Verses’, Akbar Ilahabadi, trans. Mehr Afshan Farooqi, The Oxford India Anthology of Modern Urdu Literature, ed. Mehr Afshan Farooqi, OUP, Delhi, 2008.
‘Praises Galore to the Land of Dhat’, Rangrelo Bithu, trans. Kesri Singh, Sahitya Akademi Medieval Indian Literature (Vol. 4), ed. K. Ayyappa Paniker, Sahitya Akademi, Delhi, 2000.
‘A Woman and Her Dying Warrior’, Vanparanar, trans. A.K. Ramanujan, Poems of Love and War, ed. A.K. Ramanujan, Columbia University, Columbia, 1985.
From the Mahabharata, Sarala Das, trans. Madhusudhan Pati, Sahitya Akademi Medieval Indian Literature (Vol. 3), ed. K. Ayyappa Paniker, Sahitya Akademi, Delhi, 1999.
From The State of the Realm, Mirza Mohammad Rafi Sauda, trans. Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, Sahitya Akademi Medieval Indian Literature (Vol 4), ed. K. Ayyappa Paniker, Sahitya Akademi, Delhi, 2000. ‘Kalemegdan’, Agyeya, trans. Lucy Rosenstein, New Poetry in Hindi, ed. Lucy Rosenstein, Permanent Black, Delhi, 2003. ‘Cycle Rickshaw’, Raghuvir Sahay, trans. Harish Trivedi and Daniel Weissbort, Gestures, ed. K. Satchidanandan, Sahitya Akademi, Delhi, 1996.
‘The Secunderabad Club’, Jaysinh Birjepatil, India: An Anthology of Contemporary Writing, ed. David Ray and Amritjit Singh, University of Missouri, Kansas City, 1982. First appearance in Critical Quarterly, Vol. 23, No. 4, Winter 1981.
‘Process’, Shrikant Varma, trans. Vishnu Khare, Signatures, ed. K. Satchidanandan, NBT, Delhi, 2003. ‘Remembering Tiananmen’, Tabish Khair.
‘When That Day Comes’, Lakhmi Khilani, trans. Madhu Kewlani, Sahitya Akademi Journal: Indian Literature, Sahitya Akademi, Sept.-Oct., 2008.
‘Ayodhya’, Kunwar Narain, trans. Apurva Narain, Signatures, ed. K. Satchidanandan, NBT, Delhi, 2003.
‘Bhishma and Parsurama Engage in Combat’ from the Mahabharata, Vyasa, trans. P. Lal, Writers Workshop, Kolkata, 1977. ‘Gandhari’s Lament for the Slain’, from the Ramayana & the Mahabharata condeused into English by Romesh C. Dutt, J.M. Dent & Sons, 1910, last reprint 1963.
‘The Night is Endless’, Anon, Poems of the Emergency, Anon publication.
‘No, I Am Not Losing My Sleep’, Pash, trans. Suresh Sethi, Signatures, ed. K. Satchidanandan, NBT, Delhi, 2003.
‘Lifetime’, Narayan Surve, trans. Vinay Dharwadker, Tri Quarterly Evanston, Illinois.
‘Red Bicycle’, Sarveshwar Dayal Saxena, trans. Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Another India, PBI, ed. Nissim Ezekiel and Meenakshi Mukherjee, Delhi, 1990.
‘Breaking Stones’, Nirala, trans. Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, The Last Bungalow: Writings on Allahabad, ed. Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, PBI, Delhi, 2007.
‘Once Upon a Time’, Chandrashekara Patil, trans. by the poet, 10 Years of Kannada Poetry, 1974-83, ed. Gopalakrishna Adiga, L.S. Seshagiri and Ramchandra Sharma, Sahitya Akademi Karnataka, Bangalore, 1985.
‘Where Are the Untouchables’, Purandara Dasa, trans. Keshav M. Mutalik, Songs of Divinity, ed. Keshav M. Mutalik, Popular Prakashan, Mumbai, 1995.
‘Continuum’, Gieve Patel, How Do You Withstand, Body, Clearing House, Mumbai, 1976.
‘An Epic of the Dungri Bhils’, trans. Nila Shah, documented & edited by Bhagwandas Patel, Central Institute of Indian Languages & Bhasha Research Centre, Mysore/Vadodara, 2012.
‘Bhojpuri Descant’, Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Middle Earth, OUP, Delhi, 1984.
‘Rama’s Last Act’, Bhavabhuti, trans. Sheldon I. Pollock, New York University Press and JJC Foundation/Clay Sanskrit Libraty, New York, 2007.
‘How to Tame a Pair of New Chappals’, Gopal Honnalgere, 60 Indian Poets, ed. Jeet Thayil, PBI, Delhi 2008.
‘The Tradition’, Dharmakirti, trans. Octavio Paz, PBI, Delhi.
‘I Must Have A Word’, Siddalingaiah, trans. Sumatheendra Nadig and David Ray, India: An Anthology of Contemporary Writing, ed. David Ray & Amritjit Singh, University of Missouri, Kansas City, 1982.
‘The Oblique Invitation’, Vallana, trans. Octavio Paz, A Tale of Two Gardens, PBI, Delhi, 1977.
‘I’ve Never Known How to Tan or Sew’, Ravidas, trans. J.S. Hawley and Mark Juergensmeyer, Songs of the Saints of India, OUP, Delhi, 2004. ‘A Strange Darkness’, Jibananda Das, trans. Joe Winter, Naked Lonely Hand, Meteor Books, Kolkata, 2004.
‘Let’s Go’, Kabir, trans. Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Songs of Kabir, Hachette-Permanent Black, Delhi, 2011.
‘Why Marry?’, Vemana, trans. J.S.R.L. Narayana Moorty and Elliot Roberts, Selected Verses of Vemana, Sahitya Akademi, Delhi, 1995.
‘Series of Omens’, Kanaka Ha. Ma, trans. Kanaka Ha. Ma and Priya D’Souza, Arabi Kadalu, Akshara Prakashan Safar, 2006. First published on the Indian domain of the Poetry International Web. ‘From the Art of the Courtesan’, Anon, trans. P. Narayana Kurup, Sahitya Akademi Medieval Indian Literature, Vol. 3, ed. K. Ayyappa Paniker, Sahitya Akademi, Delhi, 1999.
‘That Afternoon’, Ravji Patel, trans. Suguna Ramanathan and Rita Kothari, Modern Gujarati Poetry, ed. Suguna Ramanathana and Rita Kothari, Sahitya Akademi, Ahmedabad, 1998. ‘They Call You Mad’, Rabindranath Tagore, Ancient Indian Literature, Sahitya Akademi, Delhi.
‘What She Told Her Daughter about Unchaste Women’ from Jayavallabha’s Vajjalagam, Anon, trans. H.V. Nagaraja Rao and T.R.S. Sharma, Sahitya Akademi Medieval Indian Literature, ed. K. Ayyappa Paniker, Sahitya Akademi, Delhi.
From The Fool (Ch. V), The Dhammapada trans. Max Muller, The Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1881.
‘Stone Masons, My Father and Me’, Namdeo Dhasal trans. Vinay Dharwadker.
‘Listen Carefully’, Kabir, trans. Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Song of Kabir, Hachette-Permanent Black, Delhi, 2011.
‘Do Something Brother’, M. Gopalkrishna Adiga, trans. A.K. Ramanujan, Another India, ed. Nissim Ezekiel and Meenakshi Mukherjee, PBI, Delhi, 1990.
From Buddhacarita, Asvaghosa, trans. A.K. Warder, Indian Kavya Literature, Motilal Banarasidas Publications, Delhi, 1974. ‘Lines Written to Mothers Who Disagree with Their Sons’ Choices of Women’, Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih, SWAG Magazine, Swansea Writers’ and Artists’ Group, Swansea, 1991.
‘Know How to Tell’, Siddaramayya, trans. B.C. Ramchandra Sharma, Sahitya Akademi Medieval Indian Literature (Vol. 2), ed. K. Ayyappa Paniker, Sahitya Akademi, Delhi, 1997.
‘Madras Central’, Vijay Nambisan, Gemini, PBI, Delhi, 1992.
‘A Wife’s Complaint’, Sarangapani, trans. A.K. Ramanujan, Velcheru Narayana Rao and David Shulman, When God Is a Customer, University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1994.
‘Fire Can Burn’, Devara Dasimayya, trans. A.K. Ramanujan, Speaking
of Siva, PBI, Delhi, 1973.
‘Learned Man’, Hemacandra Suri, trans. H.V. Nagaraja Rao and T.R.S. Sharma, Ancient Indian Literature, Sahi
tya Akademi, Delhi, 2000. ‘Six Shastras, Eight Puranas, and Four Vedas’, Sami, trans. Shanti Shahani, Four Classical Poets of Sind, ed. G. Allana, Sahitya Akademi, Delhi, 1996.
‘What Shall We Sell Next?’, Vijayalakshmi, trans. C.P. Sivadasan, Malayalam Literary Survey, Sahitya Akademi Kerala, Thrisshur, 2004.
‘A Celibate Monk Shouldn’t Fall in Love’ from Sutrakritanga, Anon, trans. A.L. Basham, The Wonder That Was India, Picador, London, 1966.
‘The Guru’, A.K. Ramanujan, Collected Poems, OUP, Delhi, 1995.
‘A Stone Breaks the Sleeping Water’, Mamang Dai.
‘A Mound of Earth a Heart’, Joy Goswami, trans. Sampurna Chattarji, Surjo-Poro Chhai, Ananda Publishers, Kolkata, 1999.
‘Man: 1961’, Pranabendu Dasgupta, trans. Buddhadeva Bose, An Anthology of Bengali Writing, ed. Buddhadeva Bose, Macmillan, Mumbai, 1971.
‘Nostalgia,’ Anon, trans. Shafi Shauq, Sahitya Akademi Medieval Indian Literature, ed. K. Ayappa Paniker, Sahitya Akademi, Delhi. ‘Cemetery’, B.B. Borkar, trans. Vrinda Nabar and Nissim Ezekiel, Goan Literature, ed. Peter Nazareth, Journal of South Asian Literature, Iowa City, 1983.
‘Facts of Life’, G.S. Sharat Chandra, India: An Anthology of Contemporary Writing, University of Missouri, Kansas City, 1982. ‘Vibhishana’s Lament for Ravana’, Canto 18 from The Death of Ravana, Bhatti, trans. Oliver Fallon, New York University Press and JJC Foundation/Clay Sanskrit Libiaty, New York, 2009. ‘On Hearing of Pratap’s Passing Away’, Dursa Adha, trans. Kesri Singh, Sahitya Akademi Medieval Indian Literature (Vol. 4), ed. K. Ayyappa Paniker, Sahitya Akademi, Delhi, 2000.
‘Nine Poems on Arrival’, Adil Jussawalla, Missing Person, Clearing House, Mumbai, 1976.
‘Reports of Your Passing’, Ramakanta Rath, Poems, Grassroots, Bhubhaneshwar, 2004.
‘Absence’, Indira Sant, trans. Vrinda Nabar and Nissim Ezekiel, Indira Sant, Sadanand Publishers, Mumbai, 1975. ‘The Colours of the Season’s Best Dream’, C.P. Surendran. ‘Remembering the Year 1947’, Kedarnath Singh, trans. Pradeep Gopal Deshpande, Tree of Tongues, ed. E.V. Ramakrishnan, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, 1999.
‘The Year 1979’, Nita Ramaiya, trans. by the author, In Their Own Voice, ed. Arlene Zide, PBI, Delhi, 1993.
‘I Won’t Come and Tell You’, Gagan Gill, trans. Gagan Gill and Arlene Zide, In Their Own Voice, ed. Arlene Zide, PBI, Delhi, 1993. ‘Songs of Innocence’, Eunice de Souza, A Necklance of Skulls, PBI, Delhi, 2010.
‘Life in the Desert’, Anon, trans. C.F. Usborne, Panjabi Lyrics and Proverbs, Civil and Military Gazette Press, Lahore, 1905.
‘Looking through Well Water’, Meena Alexander, House of a Thousand Doors, Three Continents Press, Washington DC, 1988.
From Old Age, trans. Max Muller, Four Classical Poets of Sind, ed. G Allana, The Calrendon Press Oxford, 1996.
‘The Poet’s Grave’, Henry Derozio, The Fakeer of Jungheera, Samuel Smith and Co., Kolkata, 1928.
‘Wrong Address’, Dom Moraes, 60 Indian Poets, ed. Jeet Thayil, PBI, Delhi, 2008.
‘Moving House’, Balmukund Dave, trans. Suguna Ramanathan and Rita Kothari, Modern Gujarati Poetry, ed. Suguna Ramanathan and Rita Kothari, Ahmedabad, 1998.
‘On the Death of a Friend’, B.C. Ramchandra Sharma, trans. by the poet, The Seven-Walled Fort and Other Poems, Sahitya Akademi, Delhi.
‘Come, O sisters, Let Us Wail for Our Brothers’, Anon, trans. Naji Munawar, Sahitya Akademi Medieval Indian Literature (Vol. 4), ed. K. Ayyappa Paniker, Sahitya Akademi, Delhi, 2000.
‘Our Casuarina Tree’, Toru Dutt, Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan, Kegan Paul Trench and Co., London, 2nd edition, 1885.
‘Prayers for the Dead’, Nida Fazli, trans. Balraj Komal, Signatures, ed. K. Satchidanandan, NBT, Delhi, 2003.
‘Ranjha Writes to the Bhabis’ from Kissa Heer, Waris Shah, trans. Gurcharan Singh, Sahitya Akademi Medieval Indian Literature (Vol. 3), ed. K. Ayyappa Paniker, Sahitya Akademi, Delhi, 1999.
‘A Time Was When the Wine Cask’, Kapilar, trans. Prema Nandkumar, Ancient Indian Literature, Sahitya Akademi, Delhi, 2000.
‘Can It Be?’, Manmohan Ghose, Songs of Love and Death, ed. Lawrence Binyon, Basil Blackwell Oxford, 1924.
‘Lament of Old Age’, Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib (1713-80), trans. Khushwant Singh, Celebrating the Best of Urdu Poetry, ed. Khushwant Singh and Kamna Prasad, PBI, Delhi, 2007.
Section titles
‘What then shall poetry be about?’, Sunil Gangopadhyay, from ‘City of Memories’.
‘In your gracious garden’, Sarojini Naidu, from ‘The Bird Sanctuary’.
‘Are you looking for a god?’, Arun Kolatkar, from ‘Yeshwant Rao’.
‘I’m ever vigilant’, Attoor Ravi Varma, from ‘Sitting’.
‘My heart’s own love’, Anon, from ‘The Ballad of Laila’.
‘The broom’s the limit’, Cantirakanti, from ‘Wanted: A Broom’.
‘The sky between us’, G.S. Sivarudrappa, from ‘My Pocket’.
‘River of blood’, Sarla Das, from the Mahabharata.
‘Sleep on your left side’, Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, from ‘Bhojpuri Descant’.
‘Light like Ash’, C.P. Surendran, from ‘The Colours of the Season’s Best Dream’.
Introduction
1 Poem 887, The Absent Traveller, selected and trans. Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, New Delhi: Ravi Dayal, 1991, p. 66.
2 ‘To India—My Native Land’, Henry Derozio, The Fakeer of Jungheera, Calcutta: Samuel Smith Co, 1828.
3 Paula Richman, Introduction to Many Ramayanas: The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia, p. 9, ed. Paula Richman, Oxford University Press, 1992.
4 Ibid., Anon, Andhra Pradesh Women’s Song, from the Ramayana, ‘A Description of Kaushalya in Labour, in the essay ‘A Ramayana of Their Own’ by Velcheru Narayana Rao, p. 119.
5 Sudipta Kaviraj, Foreword to Gita Govinda: Love Songs of Radha and Krishna by Jayadeva, p.xxi, trans. Lee Siegel, Clay Sanskrit Library Series, New York University Press, 2009.
6 John Brough, Poems from the Sanskrit, Penguin UK, 1968, p. 11.
7 Daniel Ingalls, General Introduction, Sanskrit Poetry: From Vidyakaras ‘Treasury’, trans. Daniel Ingalls, Harvard University Press, 1972, p. 32.
8 A.K. Ramanujan, The Interior Landscape, Oxford India Paperbacks, 1994, p. 11.
9 Bhanudatta, Bouquet of Rasa & River of Rasa, ed. and trans. Sheldon I. Pollock, Clay Sanskrit Library, New York University Press, 2009, pp. 251-341.
10 Oliver Fallon, Introduction, p. xx, Bhatti’s Poem, The Death of Ravana by Bhatti, trans. Oliver Fallon, Clay Sanskrit Library, New York University Press, 2009.
11 Sheldon I. Pollock, Introduction to Bouquet of Rasa & River of Rasa by Bhanudatta, p. xxxiii, Clay Sanskrit Library, New York University Press, 2009
12 Dilip Chitre, Says Tuka, Penguin India, 1991, p. viii.
13 Ibid., p xvii.
14 Ibid.
15 Rachel Fell McDermott, Singing to the Goddess, Oxford University Press 2001, p. 8.
16 Ibid., pp. 9-10.
17 Oxford India Paperbacks, 1995, p. 2.
18 Ibid., p. 18.
19 The Oxford India Anthology of Modern Urdu Literature, 2008 p. xvii.
20 Ibid., p. xviii.
21 Ibid., xix.
22 Penguin UK, p. 18.
Smita Agarwal (b. 1958)
Daywatch in the Scriptorium
* A spirit of great transmuting power supposed to be produced by certain processes in alchemy; sometimes identified with the philosophical mercury (OED).
From the oral Kannada epic Halumatha Mahakavya
Creation Myth
* Jyotirlinga: A respectful name for Manteswami, founder and leader of the Neelagaaras, a Shaivite sect.
Pravin Gadhvi (b. 1951)
Shadow
* Lines from Lorca
Even the shadow of an untouchable was contaminating
Shah ‘Madho Lal’ Husain (1539-93)
Open the Book, Brother Brahmin
> * mahi: ‘herder of buffalo’ and ‘beloved, sweetheart, swain’ reference to the Hir-Ranjha story
Ajneya (1911-87)
Kalemegdan
* Translator’s note: Kalemegdan is the name of a fortress, situated at the confluence of the Danube and Sava, which has been turned into a museum.
Book XI
Gandhari’s Lament for the Slain
* pisachas: ghosts, goblins
† rakshas: demons
‡ kankas: birds of prey
Notes on the Translators
* In instances where translators are also poets whose work is included in this collection, please look at ‘Notes on the Poets’ for biographical informaion.
THE BEGINNING
Let the conversation begin...
Follow the Penguin Twitter.com@PenguinIndia
Keep up-to-date with all our stories YouTube.com/PenguinIndia
Like ‘Penguin Books’ on facebook.com/PenguinIndia
Find out more about the author and
discover more stories like this at penguinbooksindia.com
PENGUIN BOOKS
UK | Canada | Ireland | Australia
New Zealand | India | South Africa
Penguin Books is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com.
This collection published 2012
Copyright © Penguin Books India, 2012
The moral right of the author has been asserted
ISBN: 978-0-143-41453-7
This digital edition published in 2014.
e-ISBN: 978-8-184-75793-4
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
These My Words Page 30
