Maddern, Marian (tr.);
When poetry comes: a selection of poems by contemporary Bengali women poets in English translation
Sahitya Akademi, 1999/2007, 139 pages
ISBN 8126008555
topics: | poetry | bengali | gender | women | translation | anthology
twenty woman poets, about 170 poems. a substantial corpus, the result of over two decades of work by Australian translator Marian Maddern. Given that the originals are not here, one cannot judge the translations for faithfulness, so one is left with whether the poems work in English. In this, I am afraid that while some poems do work, and do present a fresh voice, many more seem lifeless. there is often some flab in the text, as in "drought is on the earth's breast" (from "prithibIr buke", perhaps), but here the "buke" is an idiom that perhaps does not deserve the direct rendering. nonetheless the enterprise has much value, introducing a group of poets, and the twenty poets are woven into a substantial tapestry. however i wish sahitya akademi would improve its editorial standards - the occasional typo stabs you like a leftbehind needle. but in the end, i wonder how many readers are there for translated bengali poetry? like the daughter who has left home, these poems have gone out into the world, and now no one has time for her. i wonder how many - even bengalis - will read these poems. Other translations of poetry by women: Majestic Nights by Carolyne Wright - the poems are tauter, and more of them work for me. The Unsevered Tongue is also a small anthology of poems by women.
1 ahanA biswAs b. 1970 (stone chip plant) 2 anjali dAs b. 1957 3 anuradhA mahApAtra b. 1957 4 archanA AchAryachaudhuri b. 1941 5 chaitali chattopadhyay b. 1960 6 debanjali mukhopadhyay 1955-1996 (dyke) 7 debarati mitra b. 1946 8 gita chattopadhyay b. 1941 9 jyotsna karmakar b. 1950 (daughter) 10 mallika sengupta b. 1960 11 mandira roy b. 1954 12 rajlukshmee debee 1927-2005 13 rama ghosh 14 rupa das gupta b. 1963 15 sanjukta bandyopadhyay 16 susmita bhattacharya b. 1947 (bonsai) 17 sutapa bhattacharya b.1942 18 sutapa sengupta b.1960 19 urmila chakraborty (Strayed) 20 vijaya mukhopadhyay b. 1937 (Of God)
This too is the night of danger
covered with lotus leaves or washed by tears
Sing a song
such a song that, on hearing it, even Durvasa will lay down his curse
and see me; he will think :
Is love a marvellous tree, yet a stone-chip plant?
That night will see my union with Durvasa
[pAtharkuchi, stone chip : also name of a decorative plant with
medicinal properties, Kalanchoe pinnata]
God forgot to set a barrier at the blood's border. So sand has entered the blood, poisonous foam has entered the blood, liquid decoctions of aquatic creatures and fossils... the ocean is entering the blood.
She was a daughter of this very house
yet
when a torn letter arrived from her new home
nobody had time for it
one was mending a torn hat
another was thinking about having to fillet the fish
another with slippers in hand was a 'daily passenger'
O daughter of this house, leave them behind
Within the seed was the promise of touching the heavens but your shears pruned back the root. You obiliterated the sky and the wind for ever; I am in a tub set under a roof. This house's lustre is increased by a dwarf tree fruiting without flowers; I survive on a fixed ration of food and water here; dreams of the blue sky nevertheless still stir my boughs: the root grows -- and again the shears appear!
The marks of rain's feet are on your body. Daughter of the rainforest you came here to this country of drought smearing the soft earth's rainwet scent; thre is storm in both your eyes, lightning in both hands. Why have you come here? -- Go back. Here drought is on the earth's breast, the exhausted grass blades bend down their necks clinging to the spoiled dreams of ancient rains; from their waistband purses compassionless suns pull out and throw down a handful of dry heat into furrows of thirst. From an unknown sky, from beyond inner rain clouds and dreams, why did you come, daughter of the rainforest?
God give me fire I want a son who does away with weeping. God first laughed then from his helpless eyes huge tears fell.