Sudeep Sen’s Aria: Defining the Indefinable
A review by Ananya Guha
Aria:
Translations by Sudeep Sen
Yeti Books, Kerala, 2009, 152 pages, Price Rs.399/599 (pb/hb)
Mulfran Press, Wales, 2010, 152 pages, Price £11.95/14.95 (pb/hb)
Translation of literary texts from a source language to a target language has inherent dangers. The problematic of translation would be the ability to remain as close as possible to the original text, without impeding its ‘meaning’. In other words, it is retaining the essence of creative processes at work, the interplay of ideas and ‘showing’ the original authentically. On the other hand, transliteration, ‘back-to-back’ translation may stultify the beauty of the original and may make the work dull or vapid. The polemic is ‘trans-creation’ or transliteration? Taking too much liberty with the original text may result in a rendition which critics argue dethrones the original or its seminal feelings. Translation should not result in another creation. Hence, the concept of ‘trans-creation’ is flawed, some argue. How do we resolve this conflict and paradox in translation?
Translating poetry may become a gargantuan task, all the more because poetry is more suggestive than prose and the connotative meanings and rhythms of poetry defy translation from one language to another.
Sudeep Sen’s Aria is a translation of world poetry into English and presents us with a very sensitive world-view. The geographical regions from which the poems are translated are South Asian, East and West Asian, Middle Eastern, European and South American. Some of the languages include Korean, Macedonian, Spanish, Polish, and Hebrew. In addition, there are Indian languages: Hindi, Urdu and Bengali; cross-cultural because Urdu is a hybrid language, and Bengali straddles across two nations: India and Bangladesh.
This is a daunting task, yet the translator, an English poet of worldwide repute has met these challenges with felicity resulting in a rich variety of international poetry in English. The poetry at once threads different strands: love; ideology, relationship, inner conflict, sexuality, political chaos — all universal and trans-national issues — that pulsate at the very heart of great poetry.
From Jibanananda Das’s ‘Banalata Sen’, a celebrated poem of the post-Tagorean era, to Tagore’s nonsense verse, to Gulzar’s love lyrics — these poems render an infinite music of the poet’s world view. The uniqueness of themes is the indefatigable hallmark of this delightful book. The cadence of music in all the poems is indefinable. Take for example the Bangladeshi poet Fazal Shahabuddin’s ‘Fog’.
Fog resides in my vision,
fog resides in my blood cells,
fog resides in my psyche ....
Will I live forever
with the fog, in its body and soul?
Although fog becomes a dense and striking metaphor here, the residue is music. We are left with it, not bereft of anything, but with the sheer musicality of prose transformed into the heights of poetry. Similarly, the poetry of Agyeya, Gulzar, or Ashok Vajpeyi haunts. Then we have Avraham Ben Yitshak, the Hebrew poet, celebrating poetry in ‘Bright Winter’. Here are the opening lines:
Bright Winter
is crystal white.
The north wind
sweeps yesterday
onto today.
The fog dreams:
blind, straying, ...
(‘Blue Winter’)
Many of the poets represented in Aria are obsessive about their heart’s desire; whether it is love, the world around them, politics, the abrasions of love and hate, the celebration of the body, soul and spirit, etc. There is ingenuousness and many of the poets are unabashed in their feelings, whether it be the poetry of the Korean poet Moon Chung Hee, or the meditative Spanish poet, Veronica Aranda.
But what I am primarily concerned in this exquisite collection is the primacy of translation and how a translator has been able to present a medley of world languages in English in his own inimitable manner.
In the translator’s introduction, Sudeep Sen lays bare the process—discussions with the original poets if living, interactions with them in workshops, indentifying the right assonance, metre, style, and working from a rough English first draft. What is evident is the rigorous exercise, the hard work and the commitment to poetry which rings through in this remarkable book of translation. There is poise, elegance, and finesse in Sudeep Sen’s work.
The concluding section in the book includes two original English poems by the translator: ‘Translating Poetry’ and ‘Aria’s Footprint’. The former brings into sharp focus the disordered world of translation:
A real poem defies translation, in every way.
This is cleverly paradoxical as this is a book of translations. Yet Aria has resolved this paradox by the sheer textured cadence and profusion of poetry, like an impregnable and grandiose work of architecture. It is not for nothing that Aria is the recipient of the prestigious ‘A K Ramanujan Translation Award’, and was selected as one of the Outlook magazine ‘Best Books of the Year’. Simply put—a brilliant and fascinating book of translations.
To see the world in a grain of sand
And Heaven in a white flower
Hold infinity to the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.
Ananya S. Guha lives in Shillong in North East India and works in the Indira Gandhi National Open University. He has four collections of poetry to his credit. In addition, his poems have appeared in four anthologies of poetry, and several print/online magazines such as Indian Literature, Kavya Bharati, Chandrabhaga, The Telegraph, Femina, New Quest, Journal Of Indian Writing In English, The Statesman, Poesis, Poetry Chronicle, New Welsh Review, Glasgow Review, Osprey Journal, Gloom Cupboard, Muse India, etc. He also writes for newspapers and magazines on education and subjects of general interest.
A review by Ananya Guha
Aria:
Translations by Sudeep Sen
Yeti Books, Kerala, 2009, 152 pages, Price Rs.399/599 (pb/hb)
Mulfran Press, Wales, 2010, 152 pages, Price £11.95/14.95 (pb/hb)
Translation of literary texts from a source language to a target language has inherent dangers. The problematic of translation would be the ability to remain as close as possible to the original text, without impeding its ‘meaning’. In other words, it is retaining the essence of creative processes at work, the interplay of ideas and ‘showing’ the original authentically. On the other hand, transliteration, ‘back-to-back’ translation may stultify the beauty of the original and may make the work dull or vapid. The polemic is ‘trans-creation’ or transliteration? Taking too much liberty with the original text may result in a rendition which critics argue dethrones the original or its seminal feelings. Translation should not result in another creation. Hence, the concept of ‘trans-creation’ is flawed, some argue. How do we resolve this conflict and paradox in translation?
Translating poetry may become a gargantuan task, all the more because poetry is more suggestive than prose and the connotative meanings and rhythms of poetry defy translation from one language to another.
Sudeep Sen’s Aria is a translation of world poetry into English and presents us with a very sensitive world-view. The geographical regions from which the poems are translated are South Asian, East and West Asian, Middle Eastern, European and South American. Some of the languages include Korean, Macedonian, Spanish, Polish, and Hebrew. In addition, there are Indian languages: Hindi, Urdu and Bengali; cross-cultural because Urdu is a hybrid language, and Bengali straddles across two nations: India and Bangladesh.
This is a daunting task, yet the translator, an English poet of worldwide repute has met these challenges with felicity resulting in a rich variety of international poetry in English. The poetry at once threads different strands: love; ideology, relationship, inner conflict, sexuality, political chaos — all universal and trans-national issues — that pulsate at the very heart of great poetry.From Jibanananda Das’s ‘Banalata Sen’, a celebrated poem of the post-Tagorean era, to Tagore’s nonsense verse, to Gulzar’s love lyrics — these poems render an infinite music of the poet’s world view. The uniqueness of themes is the indefatigable hallmark of this delightful book. The cadence of music in all the poems is indefinable. Take for example the Bangladeshi poet Fazal Shahabuddin’s ‘Fog’.
Fog resides in my vision,
fog resides in my blood cells,
fog resides in my psyche ....
Will I live forever
with the fog, in its body and soul?
Although fog becomes a dense and striking metaphor here, the residue is music. We are left with it, not bereft of anything, but with the sheer musicality of prose transformed into the heights of poetry. Similarly, the poetry of Agyeya, Gulzar, or Ashok Vajpeyi haunts. Then we have Avraham Ben Yitshak, the Hebrew poet, celebrating poetry in ‘Bright Winter’. Here are the opening lines:
Bright Winter
is crystal white.
The north wind
sweeps yesterday
onto today.
The fog dreams:
blind, straying, ...
(‘Blue Winter’)
Many of the poets represented in Aria are obsessive about their heart’s desire; whether it is love, the world around them, politics, the abrasions of love and hate, the celebration of the body, soul and spirit, etc. There is ingenuousness and many of the poets are unabashed in their feelings, whether it be the poetry of the Korean poet Moon Chung Hee, or the meditative Spanish poet, Veronica Aranda.
But what I am primarily concerned in this exquisite collection is the primacy of translation and how a translator has been able to present a medley of world languages in English in his own inimitable manner.
In the translator’s introduction, Sudeep Sen lays bare the process—discussions with the original poets if living, interactions with them in workshops, indentifying the right assonance, metre, style, and working from a rough English first draft. What is evident is the rigorous exercise, the hard work and the commitment to poetry which rings through in this remarkable book of translation. There is poise, elegance, and finesse in Sudeep Sen’s work.
The concluding section in the book includes two original English poems by the translator: ‘Translating Poetry’ and ‘Aria’s Footprint’. The former brings into sharp focus the disordered world of translation:
A real poem defies translation, in every way.
This is cleverly paradoxical as this is a book of translations. Yet Aria has resolved this paradox by the sheer textured cadence and profusion of poetry, like an impregnable and grandiose work of architecture. It is not for nothing that Aria is the recipient of the prestigious ‘A K Ramanujan Translation Award’, and was selected as one of the Outlook magazine ‘Best Books of the Year’. Simply put—a brilliant and fascinating book of translations.
To see the world in a grain of sand
And Heaven in a white flower
Hold infinity to the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.
Ananya S. Guha lives in Shillong in North East India and works in the Indira Gandhi National Open University. He has four collections of poetry to his credit. In addition, his poems have appeared in four anthologies of poetry, and several print/online magazines such as Indian Literature, Kavya Bharati, Chandrabhaga, The Telegraph, Femina, New Quest, Journal Of Indian Writing In English, The Statesman, Poesis, Poetry Chronicle, New Welsh Review, Glasgow Review, Osprey Journal, Gloom Cupboard, Muse India, etc. He also writes for newspapers and magazines on education and subjects of general interest.
