Introduction to poet Vemana

VEMANA IN ENGLISH VERSE (Telugu-English): Translated into English by K. Srinivasa Sastry and Usha K. Srinivas; Copies from Yugadi Publishers, 303, Amulya Apartments, Tarnaka, Hyderabad-500017. Rs. 80.

YOGI VEMANA defies all labels. He is not an atheist but cannot be called a theist either, although a believer. He is not a beloved poet of the Telugu people as Pothana is, but is a part of their daily lives.

He did not go about preaching his ideas, but they nevertheless form part of the daily thinking of the people; again, his ideas and logic are unchallengeable but no one follows them.

Variously ascribed to the 15th or 17th century, Vemana (a Kaapu) is clearly to the Telugus what Thiruvalluvar is to the Tamil people, and Sarvagna for Kannadigas.

He has said what Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ambedkar, Gandhiji and Periyar said centuries later. You can find in his poetry C.N. Annadurai's humour, Periyar's cynicism, Gandhiji's humaneness and Ambedkar's scholarly approach.

But still his ideas, expressed far more powerfully than any of these later day social reformers, did not set on fire either the Krishna or the Godavari, primarily because there was no media in those days like the printed word or the cinema.

Vemana is a people's poet. Not formally educated, he seems to have acquired some knowledge of poetics. He could not obviously handle Sanskritised Telugu and used pure Telugu, simple and straightforward, and wrote his poetry in one particularly simple metre, Aata Veladhi.

This style takes his ideas straight to the heart but unfortunately rests there without bringing about any consequential change in people's attitudes.

The simple beauty of these verses, which caught the imagination of a three-year-old girl, is what made her grand parents, the present authors, attempt to render them in English so that they can reach a wider audience.

Who cannot be touched by such verses as ``skilful is one who says he knows not, blame befalls one who says he knows, the silent one is the wisest''. ``Salt and camphor look alike, seen with care their tastes differ, (thus) are the pious different (from others)''. ``A son with no regard for mother and father, what for is he born, what for does he die? In termite hills are born termites, do they not die''.

It is of course a tough job for anyone to translate these simple verses in English. The authors have done a good job but some translations are not happy. ``Neechulu'' for example is translated as ``mean'' but ``petty'' perhaps is a better word.

Again, the fourth foot in most verses, ``Viswadaabhirama vinura Vema'' is translated as ``Beloved of the bounteous etc.,'' which is clearly not correct.

As pointed by Rallapalli Ananthakrishna Sarma in his introduction to the Vavilla edition, Viswatha means ``Prapanchatvamu'', or seeing everyone in oneself and oneself in everyone. Here the line means, ``Listen Vemana, who is the beloved of the world because he saw everyone as himself''. For non-Telugus this book is certainly a good introduction to Vemana.

G.D.

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