topics: |  poetry | india | humour | nonsense | anthology

Why not a bilingual edition?

As I was reading this book, I kept getting more and more agitated about how they could have brought out such a book without keeping the original texts in there. This is a book that was crying out to be published bilingually - thne originals (in roman script) on one side, the English versions on the other.a

When western poets like Brecht or Neruda are translated, the translations are almost always bilingual, with the original given in a facing page. why can't nonsense verse, where the sounds are of far more import, be published bi-lingually? Is it because German and Spanish are more prestigious languages than the languages of these originals?

For a recent work that does exactly this, see the children's indian nonsense verse book, Toluguti, Oluguti from Tulika Books (2011).

Does Nonsense blank verse even make sense?

Much of the nonsense in the book is supposed to be verse.
But what constitutes nonsense verse?  Here's a sample: 

    It's a fact the whole world knows,
    That Pobbles are happier without their toes,

To see the importance of the verse in nonsense verse, consider: 

    It's a fact the whole world knows,
    That without their toes Pobbles are happier


Much nonsense is verse because it stands on wordplay and rhyme
(that's why it doesn't need toes, perhaps?).  That's all the more reason we
needed the originals.  Also, even in unfamiliar languages, some words
come through anyway, as in these lines from Vaikom Basheer's Malayalam:

		La... la ... la!
		huttini halitta littapo
		Sanjini balikka luttapi
		Halitha manikka linjalo
		Sankara bahana tulipi
		Hanjini hilatto jimbalo
		Fanatta lakkidi jimbalo
		Da ... da ... da!
		La ... la ... la! (p. 93)

(but then, phrases like "sankara bahana" may be friendlier for other Indic
languages... )

The attempts at translating nonsense verse in this book, except for one or
two exceptional poets like Sampurna Chattarji, either don't make the cut,
or even worse, are rendered in prose, which makes it perhaps the world's
first nonsense blank verse.  Even where verse is not possible, perhaps
some attempt should be made to preserve the cadence, but in some sections
like the Telugu, even this appears to have been given up.

Winners

On the whole, the Bengali section stands out, because of the superlative
work by Sampurna Chatterji - all the Bengali poems, and some of the Hindi,
are translated by her - all of them retain the verse, and in some of the
sukumAr rAy verse, she even manages to retain the rhythm of the originals
almost -  and they are by far the most impressive poetry in
this collection (see selections below).  Perhaps because some of the poems
were published separately, she doesn't get mentioned as one of the
authors/editors, yet clearly her work constitutes a large part (and the
best parts) of the book.

For instance, here is Sampurna's rendering of "Abol tAbol" from Sukumar Ray's
nonsense classic from the turn of the century.  Notice that even the
cadence of the Bangla, given below in transcription and in Bangla font,
appears to have been captured.

		Abol tAbol

		Come happy fool whimsical cool
		     Come dreaming dancing fancy-free
		Come mad musician glad glusician
		     beating your drum with glee
				(tr. Sampurna Chatterjee) p.14

		Ay re bholA kheyAl kholA
		     svapandolA bAjiye Ay
		Ay re pAgal Abol tAbol
		     matta mAdal bAjiye Ay

		আয়রে ভোলা খেয়াল-খোলা
		    স্বপনদোলা নাচিয়ে আয়,
		আয়রে পাগল আবোল তাবোল
		    মত্ত মাদল বাজিয়ে আয়।

The Marathi section is a distant second, with a few translations that can
stand as English verse. The Oriya section also has a few good verses, like
this :

		Vain Cock  [poDa kapAla]

		J.P. Das (tr. Sumanyu Satpathy)

		Taught to say ku-ku-du-koo, ku-ku-du-koo
		He only said, "coco-a-doodle-doo"
			Such a vain cock-
			You're in for a shock;
		Not tandoori, you'll only be stew.

Manoj Das' The Yellow Bear is also a great translation.

There are no Tamil nonsense poems with attributed authorship, but this
traditional poem works quite well:

		Grandpa's Beard
			  (tr. from Tamil, V. Geeetha)

		When grandpa stuck his finger
		Deep into his beard
		He found many strange things there
		The strangest things you've heard:

		Out came a turtle dove
		Not just one, but two
		In flew a sunbird
		Not just one, but two
		A yellow bird has got inside
		And a blackbird too.

		They'll make their cozy nests in there
		And lay their eggs inside them
		And dear old Grandpa's long white beard
		Will quite completely hide them.

Less impressive

But most of the poems are workable, far from brilliant.  In some poems, we
have a nice rhyme going, but then it may suddenly sputter out:

		Raven, O Raven [damaru kAu]
		Nanda Kishor Bala  (tr. from Oriya Sumanyu Satpathy)

		Raven o Raven
		you caw from the murk
		of the shifting high hills
		where the Threeseedy lurks

		Its eight times twenty
		And twenty times three
		Ask brother to count
		The cowries for me

		The nighttime descends
		With coins counted out
		The kajal pot's stolen
		A thief is about.

		The six rupee ox
		Lays his head down to die.
		Only the black cow
		Today will survive.

The last verse will drive anyone up the wall... and that too with a great
cues like ox strewn around... in a few minutes, one can come up with

    	He bows down to die
	The six rupee ox -
	Only the black cow
	Survives the shocks!

not the best, but to me it seems an improvement at least...

If I were editing this work, I would throw out half the substandard English
stuff, and put in the originals for the rest, so the reader can get a
feeling for the sounds.  See, for example, Khushwant's Singh's
 review of this book, which has some examples of punjabi nonsense verse,
and it works quite well!


There is an Indian English nonsense section as well, and here too, Sampurna
Chatterji stands out:

		Idli lost its fiddli
		Dosa lost its crown
		Wada lost its wiolin
		And let the whole band down.

A Marathi parallel to this can be found in The fishing line by
Mangesh Padgavkar (tr. : 

		The Madrasi tossed in a line
		And sang, sa re ga pa dha sa,
		When he pulled upon the line
		Up came an idli and a Dosa!

So while many of the poems work, quite a few don't (e.g. the verse just
before the above).  In the end though, there is something to be said for
getting a flavour, however bleached, of the mad rhymes from other tongues.

SC contributes close to a quarter of the poems or maybe more, but somehow
(shyness?) she is not officially acknowledged as an author.

Pumpkin-Grumpkin

		Kumdo Potaash

(If) Pumpkin-Grumpkin dances-
Don't for heaven's sake go where the stable horse prances
Don't look left, don't look right, don't take no silly chances.
Instead cling with all four legs to the holler-radish branches.

(If) Pumpkin-Grumpkin runs-
Make sure you scramble up the windows all at once;
Mix rouge with hookah water and on your face smear tons;
And don't dare look up at the sky, thinking you're great guns!

(If) Pumpkin-Grumpkin calls-
Clap legal hats on to your heads, float in basisn down the halls;
Pound spinach into healing paste and smear your forehead walls;
And with a red-hot pumice-stone rub your nose until it crawls.

Those of you who find this foolish and dare to laugh it off,
When Pumpkin-Grumpkin gets to know you won't want to scoff.
Then you'll see which words of mine are full of truth, and how,
Don't come running to me then, I'm telling you right now.
		(tr. Sampurna Chatterjee)

Mister Owl and Missus

Payncha aar Paynchani_

Mister says to Missus Owl,
     I just love it when you howl,
Listening absent-mindely,
     My sould dances blindedly!
That rubbed voice and scrbbed croon,
     That upswelling happy swwon!
Just one of your ear-splitting hoots
     Rips the trees out of their roots
A twist, a turn in every note
     Crescendos creaking from that throat!
All my feasrs all my woes
     All my throbby sobby lows,
Are all forgotten thanks to you
     My darling singing Owleroo.
Moonbright beauty, sweet as sleep,
     Your nightly songs, they make me weep.
		(tr. Sampurna Chatterjee)

প্যাঁচা আর প্যাঁচানি

		প্যাঁচা কয় প্যাঁচানি,
		খাসা তোর চ্যাঁচানি!
		শুনে শুনে আনমন
		নাচে মোর প্রাণমন!
		মাজা-গলা চাঁচা সুর
		আহাদে ভরপুর!
		গলা-চেরা গমকে
		গাছ পালা চমকে,
		সুরে সুরে কত প্যাঁচ
		গিট্কিরি ক্যাঁচ্ ক্যাঁচ্!
		যত ভয় যত দুখ
		দুরু দুরু ধুক্ ধুক্,
		তোর গানে পেঁচি রে
		সব ভুলে গেছি রে-
		চাঁদ মুখে মিঠে গান
		শুনে ঝরে দু'নয়ান।

	source: https://bn.wikisource.org/wiki/প্যাঁচা_আর_প্যাঁচানি

** Surprisingly, this poem was not included in SC's Wordygurdyboom, but
   appears first here.

Stand-Alones Together

    [shunechha ki bale gelo]

Did you hear what he said, the old fool?
The sky, it seems, smells sour as a rule!
But the sour smell vanishes when rain falls like sleet
And then - I've tasted it myself - it's absolutely sweet!
	(tr. Sampurna Chatterjee) p.14
		[how about "utterly" instead of "absolutely" there?]

Wordy Gurdyboom

	shabda-kalpa-droom

	Whack-thwack boom-bam, oh what a rackers
	Flowers blooming? I see! I thought they were crackers!
	Whoosh-swoosh ping-pong my ears clench with fear
	You mean that's just a pretty smell getting out of here?
	Hurry scurry clunk thunk - what's that dreadful sound?
	Can't you see - the dew is falling, you better stay housebound!
	Hush-shush listen! Slip-slop-sper-lash!
	Oh no the moon's sunk - glub glub glubbash!
	Rustle-bustle slip-slide the night just passed me by
	Smash-crash my dreams just shattered, who can tell me why?
	Rumble-tumble buzz-buzz I'm in such a tizzy!
	My mind's dancing round and round making me so dizzy!
	Cling-clang ding-dong my aches ring like bells -
	Ow-ow pop-pop oh my heart it burns and swells!
	Helter-skeler bang-bang 'help! help!' they're screeching-
	Itching for a fight they said! Quick! Run out of reaching!
			(tr. Sampurna Chatterjee) p.14

what the little girl learnt : annada-shankar roy (tr. sampurna c)

		A-ha!
		Yes ma!
		Baa baa black sheep
		Have you any wool?
		No ma! No ma!
		That’s all bull.
		Not black, not a sheep.
		Not at all woolly.
		So where’ll I get wool?
		You’re wrong, fully.
				(tr. Bengali by Sampurna Chattarji)

The fishing line : Mangesh Padgavkar (tr. Anita Vaccharajani)

Chintu Bhatt tossed a line
And tied his tuft up tightly,
When he pulled upon the line,
Up came a pea boiled lightly!

The Saraswat tossed a line
And cleared his throat -- ahem,
When he pulled upon the line
Up came a fish to him! 

The Madrasi tossed in a line
And sang, sa re ga pa dha sa,
When he pulled upon the line
Up came an idli and a Dosa!

Vain Cock : J. P. Das (tr. Sumanyu Satpathy)

	Taught to say ku-ku-du-koo, ku-ku-du-koo
	He only said ‘cock-a-doodle-doo’
		Such a vain cock —
		You’re in for a shock:
	Not tandoori, you’ll only be stew.

Sadanand Satpathy : J. P. Das (tr. Sumanyu Satpathy)

	   He, of Sarankul, Sadanand Satpathy
	   Went off riding his brand new phat-phati
		    The red traffic light
		    He crossed with delight
	   And thus did the babu attain sadgati.

("sadgati" = the right ending, implying death)

Mister Rat : Tamil folk (tr. V. Geetha)

	Mister Rat, Mister Rat
	Where are you going? 
	I’m going off to London
	To see Elizabeth Queen.

	You’ve got to cross the seven seas
	Pray, what’s your solution?
	I’ll buy a ticket for a plane 
	And fly across the ocean.

	You will get hungry on the way
	Pray, what will you eat?
	I’ll buy bajjis and vadas, hot,
	And give myself a treat.

She will come : Punjabi folk (tr.Nirupama Dutt)

There is a section on Wedding songs from the Punjab, collated by Nirupama
Dutt. 
One type of bawdy song, called sithni, are sung in weddings by female
relatives of the bride, to tease the groom and his party. 

The same women ask the questions and give the answers.  All insinuations are
part of the local bonhomie.  Such songs are rarely published.  Nirupama Dutt
has collected them as part of her interest in Punjabi folklore, both
Pakistani and Indian. 

	So you have come
	yes you have come
	But where have you
	left your mum? 

	She will come
	She will come
	She’s just busy
	Shaking her bum.

	What’s the matter, dear mister?
	What’s the matter, dear mister?

	Where have you left
	Your little sister'

	She’ll be here soon
	So don’t you titter!
	She’s just fucking
	the Barrister.

A Note on the Translations                         xvii
Uncovering the Tenth Rasa: An Introduction         xix
 	An Indian Nonsense Naissance
          Michael Herman
      Tradition and Modernity in Indian Nonsense
          Sumanyu Satpathy
      Is Nonsense?
          Anushka Ravishankar
  Literary Nonsense
    Kabir (Hindi)                                  3 
      From Bijak
        Sabda 62
        Sabda 2
        Sabda 52
    Tenali Ramalinga (Telugu)                      6 
        A Man of Mettle
        Goat's Tail
    Sukumar Ray (Bengali)                          8 
        Glibberish-Gibberish
        Mister Owl and Missus
        Pumpkin-Grumpkin
        Jollycoddled
        Ooby Dooby Doom!
        Wordygurdyboom!
        Stand-Alones Together
        Article Twenty-One
        One Off Into Two
        Mish-Mash
        Wise Old Woody
        Tomcat's Song
        Nonsense Gone-sense
        For Better or for Verse
        Why?
        Gorgondola
        From Haw-Jaw-Baw-Raw-Law
    Rabindranath Tagore (Bengali)                  37 
      From Khapchhada
        The Old Woman's Grandma-in-Law's Five
        Sisters
        Desperate to Hear an Elephant Sneeze
        On the Floor of the Hall
    Annada Sankar Ray (Bengali)                    39 
        What the Little Girl Learnt
        Let's to Delhi
        Clerihew
    Bauddhayan Mukherji (Bengali)                  42 
        Liffle Girl
        Why?
        Dead Can Dance
        Suncle
        King for a Day
        Weirdo
    Navakanta Barua (Assamese)                     45 
        Ninepur
    Anushka Ravishankar (English)                  47 
        Lost and Found
        If
        Discovery of India
        From Excuse Me Is This India?
        From Wish You Were Here
        Uncle Tettra Hedran in a Pyramid, Egypt
        Cousin Collum at the Tower Bridge,
        London
        Brother Marbel at the Taj Mahal, India
        From Ogd
    Sampurna Chattarji (English)                   63 
      From The Food Finagle: A Culinary Caper
        Idli-Pom
        Very Fishy
        Explained
        Easy
        Frankie
      From The Boy Who Had Never Seen a Town
    Shreekumar Varma (English)                     67 
      Grandmother's Tales
      Ghost Office
    Vinda Karandikar (Marathi)                     69 
      The Smart Aleck
      Hospitality
      Aatpaat Town
      Pishi Mavshi's Backyard
      Pishi Mavshi's Journey
      The Zoo
    Mangesh Padgavkar (Marathi)                    74 
      The Fishing Line
      Poor Little Sparrow
      From Vaatratika
        Introduction
        A Little More Introduction
        Uncle's Wife
        Pious
      Is It True?
      The Nest
      No
      Mr Big Nose
      There once was a man
    Sarita Padki (Marathi)                         80
      Sixed-Up Mong
      The Bathing Hymn
    Usha Khadilkar (Marathi)                       81
        The Mango Jumped Right off the Tree
    Anant Bhave (Marathi)                          82 
        Bananas, Bananas
        When, Then
    Usha Mehta (Marathi)                           84
        A Blast
    Leelavati Bhagwat (Marathi)                    85
        The Snail
    Shanta Shelke (Marathi)                        85
        Once...
    Gulzar (Hindi)                                 86
        The One-Eyed Town
    Sarveshwar Dayal Saxena (Hindi)                87 
        Mr Footloose
        The Copycat Raja
        One, Two, Three, Four
    Sri Prasad (Hindi)                             89
        The Jamun
    K. Ayyappa Paniker (Malayalam)                 89
        Murder
    Muthalappuram Mohandas (Malayalam)             90
        Two Sad Souls
    Vaikom Muhammad Basheer (Malayalam)            91
        From Me Grandad 'ad an Elephant
    Kunjunni (Malayalam)                           92 
        A Tongue-Twister
        Because
        Tell Me a Story
    Nanda Kishore Bala (Oriya)                     94
        Raven, O Raven
    Manoj Das (Oriya)                              95
        The Yellow Bear
    J.E Das (Oriya)                                96 
        Vain Cock
        Bhagrathi Bhaina
        Professor Kar
        Sadanand Satpathy
        Fear
        Flying Rumours
    Dash Benhur (Oriya)                            99 
        Sing a Song, Brother, Sing!
        Ickity-Sickity
        The Shadow-Catching Baiya
    Niranjan Behera (Oriya)                        103
        Madhia Hunday of Kandia Kunday
        Ant-King's Grandson
        The King and the Ant
    Sri Sri (Telugu)                               104
        Clerihew
    M.D. Muthukumaraswamy (`Sylvia') (Tamil)       105 
        A Detective Novel
    S. Ramakrishnan (Tamil)                        114 
        The History of the Ramasamy Lineage:
        The Hidden Truths
  Nonsense in Hindi Film
    From Aashirwad                                 129 
        There Goes Gran
    From Namak Halaal                              131 
        I Can Talk English
    From Amar Akbar Anthony
        My Name is Anthony Gonsalves               133 
  Folk Nonsense
  Nursery and Folk Rhymes
      Bengali                                      137 
        Custard-apple mustard-parrots
        Skitter-chitter fruit bats
        The bears are eating tamarind
        Sleepy eyes peepy eyes
        Scrawly-molly skin-crawly
        Nitter-natter
        The blackest bat that purled
        Shilly-shally asked for rice
      Bhojpuri-Hindi                               140 
        Sri Ganeshji
        While playing I found a cowry shell
      Gujarati                                     142
        The buffalo climbed a peepal tree
        Bluffer
      Malayalam                                    143
        Wormtooth
      Hindi                                        143 
        Word for word
        Fat cat
        A, B, C, D
        Barber's brother
        The Match
        Gadbadjhala
      Tamil                                        146 
        Mister Rat
        Grandpa's Beard
        Don't stick out your tongue
        Singapore Dandy
        Food Fight
      Urdu                                         149
        Urdu Nursery Rhymes
  Folk Drama
      Assamese                                     150
        Fool's Song
      Kannada                                      150
        The camel perched upon a brick
      Oriya                                        151
        Interludes from Oriya Operas
  Folk tale
      Thado-Kuki                                   152 
        Man and Spirit
        Shedding Skin
        Dao Sharpening
      Haryanvi                                     154
        Four Friends
  Never-Ending Tales and Chain Verses
      Makryalam                                    154
        Mother of the Woods
      Oriya                                        155 
        Never-Ending Tale
        My tale has ended
        Let's tell a tale I
      Bengali                                      157
        What's up?
      Kannada                                      158
        Jaggery Square
      Marathi                                      158
        And Then, Bhurrah!
  Game Rhymes
      Assamese                                     159
        Where is That Mango?
      Gujarati                                     160
        Curds Gurdew
      Kannada                                      160
        Close your eyes
        Frog, frog
      Malayalam                                    161
        The Circle Game Song
      Marathi                                      162
        Dumdee Dandy
      Oriya                                        163
        Let's tell a tale II
      Punjabi                                      164
        Hopscotch Rhyme
        Kikali kalir di
  Festival and Ceremony Verse
      Gujarati                                     165
        Naming Rhyme
      Malayalam                                    166
        Onam Song
      Assamese                                     166
        The duck chased off the civet
      Kannada                                      167
        A Mocking Wedding Song
      Punjabi                                      167 
        Wedding Songs from Punjab
        Pumpkin Song
        She Will Come
        My Husband's Woman
  Lullaby and Folk Song
      Assamese                                     170 
        O Flower: A Lullaby
        Lullaby
      Punjabi                                      172
        Hoote-maate Lullaby
        Parrot Lullaby
      Mizo                                         173
        Folk Songs from Mizoram
        Folk Song I
        Folk Song II
      Kannada                                      174 
        Nursery Song
        Children's Songs
        Frogs twitter
        In a government bus
        Oh! Caw!
        Look up at the sky!
      Malayalam                                    176 
        Fib Song I
        Fib Song II
        Farmer's Song
      Marathi                                      178
        Rain Song
        Rice Song
      Tamil                                        179
        A Mango Tree
  `Thorn' Texts
      Marathi                                      180
        Three Villages Sant Namdev
      Urdu                                         181
        Shikar Nama Khwaja Banda Nawaz Gesu
        Daraz
      Gujarati                                     182 
        A Story about a Story
        The Never-Never King
        The False City
      Tamil                                        185
        On the tip of a thorn
      Malayalam                                    186
        On the tip of a needle
      Oriya                                        187 
        Story of a Story, Hero of a Brother
  The Rising Stars
    Kaushik Vishwanath                             193
      Let Us Alphabetus
    Arpita Shah                                    193
      Phony Comb
    Pooja Jhunjhunwala                             194
      The Glow-Worm and the Giraffe
    Vinnie Mehta                                   195
      The Joking Juice
    Shaivya Sonkar                                 195
      Yello Jello
    Novnit Kashyap                                 196 
      The Mixed-Up City
  Appendix Edward Lear's Indian Nonsense
      The Cummerbund: An Indian Poem               199 
      The Akond of Swat                            201 
      Indian Limericks                             205
      Poona Observer, May 1875                     206
      The Owl and the Pussy-cat                    206 
Notes on Contributors                              209 
Copyright Acknowledgements                         221

		June 24, 2008
		http://www.lehigh.edu/~amsp/2008/06/indian-nonsense.html

I came across an anthology called The Tenth Rasa: An Anthology of Indian
Nonsense, while browsing in a bookstore in suburban Philadelphia. The book is
a collection of nonsensical poems and short stories from all over India, most
of them translated into English. It’s one of those rare Penguin India titles
that ended up getting distributed in the U.S. (An earlier book, which I
discovered in exactly the same way, was Samit Basu’s The Simoqin
Prophecies. Also, I should point out that the editors of The Tenth Rasa have
started a blog to promote the book.)

Shakespeare and Dickens may have begun to give way to Tagore and Rushdie in
Indian English literature classrooms, but "Baa baa black sheep" and the
gloom-filled "Ring a Ring a rosies" still rule the nursery rhyme canon. (In
this case, "black sheep" also has a certain possible racial tinge, which Ray
seems to be resisting.)

As I hope these examples illustrate the pickings in The Tenth Rasa are quite
rich. People who haven’t been exposed to this type of writing before might
want to also get ahold of Sukumar Ray’s wonderful Abol-Tabol, for which a
quite decent English translation is available.

And Heyman, Satpathy, and Ravishankar have piqued my curiosity about the
Indian experiences and writings of the father of English nonsense writing,
Edward Lear (Lear spent two years in India, and left an extensive travel
journal, as well as a handful of excellent poems, including “The Akond of
Swat” and “The Cummerbund”)

For the curious, here is a bit more on the way this volume was put together:

The Title

The title is an allusion to Bharata’s Natya Shastra, which has a
famous chart of the nine literary Rasas, or moods (“spirits”): love, anger,
the comic/happy, disgust, heroism, compassion, fear, wonder, and peace. The
one that was missing was perhaps the rasa of “whimsy” – or nonsense. The
Bengali writer Rabindranath Tagore noticed the absence, and suggested that a
tenth rasa might be needed (he also published a volume of writing for
children, as well as a collection of Bengali folk rhyms called Khapchhada
(1937), which has never been translated in its entirety. And Sukumar Ray, the
most famous Indian nonsensicalist of all (the Indian Lewis Caroll) took up
this charge quite directly, which contained an apologia at the beginning of
the Bengali edition: “This book was conceived in the spirit of whimsy. It is
not meant for those who do not enjoy that spirit.” In his introduction to The
Tenth Rasa, Heyman points out that the Bengali for “spirit of whimsy” is
“kheyaal rawsh” – where “rawsh” is the Bangla version of “rasa.” Thus, The
Tenth Rasa.

The Sense in Nonsense

Some readers might think we are just talking about “pure” nonsense, but
Heyman defines the specific literary genre he is working with quite
carefully:

    We may begin by classifying literary nonsense texts as those where there
    is a type of balance between ‘sense’ and ‘non-sense.’ Such balance is
    necessary if the text is not to become either plane sense, as in a
    best-selling crime novel, or utter gibberish, as in a baby’s
    babbling. The former is unremarkable, the latter, unintelligible. Good
    nonsense engages the reader; it must ‘invite interpretation’, implying
    that sense can be made, but at the same time it must foil attempts to
    make sense in many of the traditional ways.

    In order to keep the balance, the ‘sense’ side of the scale must weigh
    heavily: Nonsense thus tends to be written in tight structures, that is,
    with strict poetic form or within the bounds of formal prose. It also
    usually follows meticulously many rules of language, like grammar, syntax
    and phonetics. Nonsense stories are about identifiable characters and the
    usually simple plots are understandable.

In short, in order to be interesting, nonsense has to be carefully crafted;
it usually bowdlerizes the kinds of literary forms with which we're most
familiar.

A little bit later, Heyman describes the distinction he makes between
nonsense and related genres like riddles, fantasy, and fables:

    Jokes, riddles, light verse, fantasy, fables—none of these forms is in
    itself nonsense. A joke is funny because it makes sense; nonsense is
    funny because it does not. A riddle is clever because, eventually, it
    makes sense; nonsense is clever in how it suggestively does not. Light
    verse, fantasy, fables… nonsense can live in any of these forms and
    more. Indeed, it thrives on some overarching form that gives it some
    recognizable shape and meaning—something to make sure the nonsense
    techniques do not make the text explode into boring gibberish—yet the
    form itself provides only such (necessary) restraints; it does not equal
    nonsense. Thus, nonsense is a kind of parasite inhabiting a host form,
    yet it has a life of its own.

In short, what we’re speaking of is not just any old bakwas, but the most
refined rubbish.