Here is an excerpt from Nissim Ezekiel’s poem ‘The Railway Clerk’:
I am never neglecting my responsibility,
I am discharging it properly,
I am doing my duty,
but who is appreciating?
Nobody, I am telling you.
My desk is too small,
the fan is not repaired for two months,
three months.
I am living far off in Borivli,
my children are neglecting studies,
how long this [...]
P. Lankesh (1935 – 2000) is a major Kannada writer. He was a novelist, poet, film maker, journalist, part-time politician, publisher and much else. He was perhaps the most daring writer. He was rarely politically or poetically correct. During the peak of modernist poetry in Kannada he would write rhyming couplets. He took on the [...]
M.S. Sriram calls Jayant Kaikini one of the evergreen poets in Kannada for being youthful in his work and in conduct. Ever since I started reading poetry I have been reading Jayant. In my friends circle I was notorious as Jayant’s advertiser. I am fond of his poems, his short stories and his prose. Once [...]
I read a few volumes of Kannada poetry recently. Three poets appealed to me.
S Usha, Ankush Betageri and Sandhyadevi. I don’t know these poets in person. Their poems are good. What strikes to me most in them is the power of the image.
Of the three, Sandhyadevi is the most experimentative. She has a few [...]
Dr. Vijayasri Sabarad is a well known feminist writer and an activist. This poem written in 2005 still has the anger that characterized the feminist poetry of the 80’s. Again, we see the references to myths. The urge among the feminists writing from within Hindu communities to critique the injustice meted out to the mythical [...]
Here is a poem from Kannada. S. Manjunath is one of the major voices in contemporary Kannada poetry. His poems are rich in their micro details and careful construction. I have translated here one of his poems that I like. It is an old one though.
Thing Hymn
(S. Manjunath: vastu stuti)
Salutes to things
May they not make our hearts logwood
Bestowing [...]
This poem is by Kannada poet Anand Zunjarwad. Posting here because I liked it.
A Tree
(Anand Zunjarwad: omdu mara)
A tree
Was once my cradle;
Who had raised it by watering
I don’t know.
A tree
Is growing somewhere
For my pyre;
Who is raising it by watering it
I don’t know.
I too like all else
Am nourishing some trees by watering [...]
This post offers a few scattered thoughts on feminist poetry in Kannada focusing on a translation of a poem by Saraju Katkar. I hope to add more later.
Here is a poem translated from Kannada:
Ahalye
You
Ahalye,
As stone you were a legend
A poem, a novel,
A living proof of male ego.
With rebirth
One thought you would raise
The flag of rebellion
Against [...]
