#EverydayTranslations Day 4
[A note on the Featured Image: This incredible artwork titled ‘Blue Rhino‘ is the creation of artist Arsenyi Lapin, who has very graciously allowed me to use it alongside this particular translation. Why I asked him for this image, you’ll see in a minute. I discovered Arsenyi on Facebook one fine evening about five years ago and has been following ever since. Seriously, everything this guy does, paintings, sketches, woodcarving, photography, everything is magical. Go check him out right now!]
Three days in and there’s a break already. Yay! Well, the inevitable happened. My family and I tested positive for You-Know-What and I have been down with a mild fever. I’m better now, and able to steal a wee moment for myself between caring for the sicker members of the family and figuring out the logistics of quarantine. I am looking very hard to escape, so I decided to take a walk through the magical words of the late and legendary Manindra Gupta today.
I believe Manindra Gupta to be virtually untranslatable. His poetry is heady like the dark and potent magic of old; filled with imageries and language that demand an umbilical relationship with his ethos to be fully grasped. His metaphors are beguilingly complex and layered. You’ll never see what hit you before it does.
‘গণ্ডার’ or ‘Rhinoceros’ is my favourite poem by him. Why, I cannot tell you. I have gone through a significant amount of his writing, both poetry and prose. But I always come back to this, and leave with a smile. Here, let me share this with you.
Rhinoceros
Manindra Gupta
Tiny bird sits on the horn of a one-horned rhinoceros
And leads him into the deep forest, whistling sweet
The wood’s alight with creeping thistle blooms.
Bird and Rhinoceros think together—
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaOh, what a blessed day!
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Trees lined up like courtiers for half a mile, then
Deeper into the forest there lies a royal court of trees
That is where Bird is taking Rhinoceros—
Will Rhino be the king there, or the counsellor? Bah
These earthly matters do not become him. He is Rhinoceros – the Horned Lord!
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Eko Charo Gandar Khaggabisankappo—
Two and a half millennia ago Shakya Buddha himself
Followed in his footsteps.
Oh, what a blessed day!
Bird whistles, atop Rhinoceros’ nose—
As though Rhino himself walks whistling.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Today, clouds have gathered over the peaks of Mahakal Mountain.
He and Bird took to that path.
His body is huge, brain’s not so sharp, face’s rather ugly too,
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa His skin wrinkled and warty like hoary old men.
His eyes are weak – besides the moon on distant horizons and the sunset
He doesn’t ever really see the whole of the sky.
And yet strangely, the hideous smell of humans
He catches even from half a mile afar.
Drop it though, he doesn’t want to think of evil creatures today.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Today, clouds have gathered over the peaks of Mahakal Mountain—
Such deep dark delightful clouds!
Clouds, like his magnificent brother.
In Other Words 