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Poet’s paean
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Pavan K. Varma on his recent English translation of Gulzar’s poetry
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Decoding Gulzar Pavan K. Varma
His range varies from the contemporary to the medieval to the mythological. All his 12 books belong to different genres, from biographies to commentaries on modern India.
A diplomat, Pavan K. Varma is also a lover of Urdu poetry.And now this Director General of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations has rendered 45 of Gulzar’s verses into English. Named Selected Poems, it is published by Penguin India.
Says Varma, “What impressed me about Gulzar’s work is the wide range of his imagery. He has a way with words and he uses more Hindustani than chaste Urdu. There is always a touch of the earth, in his work.”
“In poems like Naseerudin Shah, Pancham, Portrait of a Prostitute and Rape, the simplicity of expression is in direct contrast to the strong images.”
Elaborating, he says, “I have explored the uniqueness of Gulzar’s work in my ‘Translator’s Note’. I think, it is his evocation of the environment, his subtle and profound lines about relationships that make his poetry unique. He has the ability to juxtapose a thought with an image so powerfully that a reader is literally wrenched out of his or her world.”
Although Varma says he has been an avid admirer of Gulzar’s poetry for a long time, he met him first during a seminar organised by the ICCR at Neemrana two years ago where Gulzar read out a thought-provoking poem called Books. “During our next meeting I happened to talk about the intensity of his work, he asked me whether I would like to translate his poetry. Although several people have tried their hands, he said he hasn’t felt satisfied with the outcome. I have always felt charged with the feeling that more of our poetry needs to be translated from one Indian language to another, and until that happens there should be translations in English to expose some great poetry to a wider audience,” he says. So while he accepted the offer and “the challenge with gratitude”, he says, “I must confess translating him is no easy talk. I worked and worked on these poems for a long time and then sent them to him for comments.”
SURESH KOHLI
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