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eight distinct cases, whereas English has case only marginally.Inflection allows the word order to be variedendlessly. Unaccented function words in English, such as“a,” “the,” “of,” and “from,” are denoted in Sanskrit by achange in the inflectional syllable. Thus, for the threeEnglish words, “of the book,” Sanskrit has only one,“pustakasya,” in which the genitive singular marker“asya” represents “of the.” Thus, inflection allows anunusually concise structure.Sanskrit poetics emphasizes imagery and tone.Nothing is stated explicitly; it is always suggested.Indirect suggestion (dhvani) is a fundamental aestheticprinciple. The poems are impersonal. No names are mentioned,as any public acknowledgment would be sociallydisapproved and in bad taste. The form of the poem is anindependent stanza of two or four lines (muktaka),expressing a single mood (rasa). Often the stanza consistsof a single sentence.Sanskrit erotic poetry is best appreciated if thereader has some familiarity with the conventions of theerotic mood spelled out in such texts as Vatsyayana’sKamasutra (A Manual on the Art of Love, 3rd c.) orKalyanamalla’s Anangaranga (The Stage of the LoveGod, 16th c.). It has few equals, with the possible exceptionof the erotic poems in The Greek Anthology (10thc.) compiled by the Byzantine scholar KonstantinusKephalas. Sanskrit poetry was the product of a sophisticatedurban civilization.Let us look at an anonymous poem, “The Sheets,”from the Amarusataka (Amaru’s One Hundred Poems,7th c.), an influential anthology of erotic verse.kvacittambulaktah kvacidagarupankankamalinahkvaciccurnodgari kvaccidapi ca salakttakapadah |valibhangabhogairalakapatitaih sirnakusumaihstriya nanavastham prathayati ratam pracchadapatah||14Smudged here with betel juice, burnished therewith aloe paste, a splash of powder in one corner,and lacquer from footprints embroidered inanother,with flowers from her hair strewn all overits winding crumpled folds, the sheets celebratethe joy of making love to a woman in everyposition.The word “sheets” has long been part of the euphemismsfor lovemaking. Expressions include “shaking of thesheets,” “between the sheets,” and “possess a woman’ssheets.” Social conventions, however, prohibit the poetfrom describing the various positions. He gets around theprohibition by describing the traces left by the woman,who is probably a courtesan, on the bedsheets duringlovemaking. The telltale marks on the bedsheets —“betel juice,” “aloe paste,” “splash of powder,” “lacquerfrom footprints,” and “flowers/ from her hair” — bearwitness to a night of wild lovemaking by the couple. Byconcentrating almost entirely on the background, the poetforces the reader’s attention on the foreground — thecouple’s lovemaking in “every position.” In hisSrngaradipika (The Interpretation of Love, ca. 1400),one of four commentaries on the Amarusataka,Vemabhupala 15 identifies each of the telltale marks with aspecific position: the “betel juice” with the “position ofthe cat”; the “aloe paste” with the “position of the elephant”;the “splash of powder” with the “position of thecow”; and “lacquer from footprints” with the unorthodoxposition, muliere superior, the woman on top of the man.The Kamasutra (part 2, chapters 6 and 8) offers the classicdescription of these positions. The poem is a textbookexample of the Sanskrit poet’s use of indirect suggestion(dhvani). Each reader, however, completes the poem inhis or her own mind. Often in life what we cannot see isfar more powerful than what we can actually see.The poem is a feast of olfactory delights. It recognizesthe erotic possibilities of scents such as aromaticherbs and perfumes in lovemaking. Other cultures areequally explicit on this matter. Proverbs 7:17–18 says: “Ihave perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning; let ussolace ourselves with loves.” 16 The Anangaranga callsattention to the importance of a fine environment forlovemaking: “the sheets should be sprinkled with flowersand the coverlet scented by burning incense such as aloesand other fragrant woods. In such a place, let the manascending the throne of love, enjoy the woman at easeand comfort, gratifying his and her every wish andwhim.” 17The sense of total abandon with which the couplemake love all over the bed is brought home by the insistentrepetition of the adverb “here” (“kvacit”). The entirepoem is one sentence, in which the subject, “the sheets”(pracchadapatah), is deliberately withheld till the veryend to add to the suspense. The poem is an erotic masterpiece.Sanskrit prosody is quantitative like the prosodiesof Greek and Latin; it is based on a succession of shortand long syllables and not, as in English, on stress. Ashort syllable consists of a short vowel (a, i, u, r, . l) . fol-Translation Review 65
lowed by a consonant. A long syllable consists of a longvowel (a, i, u, r, e, ai, o, or au) or a short vowel followedby two or more consonants. A short vowel becomes longwhen it is followed by an anusvara (“after-sound”: avowel nasality indicated by a superscript dot), a visarga(“giving up”: voiceless aspiration indicated by two dots,one below the other, after the syllable), or a conjunctconsonant.The stanza form (padya) most common in classicalSanskrit poetry comprises four identical metrical lines or“quarters” (pada). The quarter is determined by the numberof syllables (aksaras) or by the number of syllabicinstants (matras). Each quarter has from eight to twentyoneor more syllables. A syllabic instant denotes the timetaken to utter a short vowel. A short vowel equals onematra; a long vowel or diphthong equals two matras.Each quarter is arranged in units of three syllables calledsyllabic feet (ganas). The order of short and long syllablesin each unit varies. There are eight syllabic feet,each represented by a letter of the Sanskrit alphabet:1. na: ∪ ∪ ∪ (tribrach)2. ya: ∪ - - (bacchiac)3. ra: - ∪ - (cretic)4. ta: - - ∪ (palimbacchiac)5. ma: - - - (molossus)6. bha: - ∪ ∪ (dactyl)7. ja: ∪ – ∪ (amphibrach)8. sa: ∪ ∪ - (anapest).There are two other syllabic feet: the first comprises asingle long syllable, represented by the letter ga (-), andthe second, a single short syllable, represented by the letterla (∪).Each of the four lines of the poem “The Sheets” hasseventeen syllables that have an identical metrical pattern,with a caesura (yati), represented by a vertical bar(|), after the sixth syllable:ya ma na sa bha la ga∪ - - - - -|∪ ∪ ∪ ∪ ∪ - - ∪ ∪ ∪ -kvacittambulaktah kvacidagarupankankamalinahya ma na sa bha la ga∪ - - - - -|∪ ∪ ∪ ∪ ∪ - - ∪ ∪ ∪ -kvaciccurnodgari kvaccidapi ca salakttakapadah |ya ma na sa bha la ga∪ - - - - -|∪ ∪ ∪ ∪ ∪ - - ∪ ∪ ∪ -valibhangabhogairalakapatitaih sirnakusumaihya ma na sa bha la ga∪ - - - - -| ∪ ∪ ∪ ∪ ∪ - - ∪ ∪ ∪ -striya nanavastham prathayati ratam pracchadapatah ||where the macron (-) stands for a long syllable and thebreve (∪) for a short syllable.Sanskrit meters have fanciful names such as “TheTiger’s Sport” (sardulavikridita) and “Indra’sThunderbolt” (indravajra). Often the name of a metertells us something about its flow, for example, mandakranta(“slow moving”). The long syllables of thismeter suggest pathos. Kalidasa’s poem The CloudMessenger (Meghadutam) offers some fine examples. In“The Tiger’s Sport,” the meter mimics the leap of a tiger.A long leap is followed by a caesura after the twelfth syllable,and the quarter ends on a short leap. The meter ofour poem is “The Excellent Lady” (sikharini), comprisingseventeen syllables in each quarter. The second,third, fourth, fifth, sixth, twelfth, thirteenth, and seventeenthsyllables are long; the rest are short. There is acaesura after the sixth syllable. Each quarter consists ofthe following syllabic feet: ya, ma, na, sa, bha, la, andga (∪ - - - - - ∪ ∪ ∪ ∪ ∪ - - ∪ ∪ ∪ -).In the translation, the four lines of Sanskrit haveexpanded to seven lines in English that vary in lengthfrom nine to fourteen syllables. The classical meter isreplaced by free verse. The rhythms are those of speech,not song. This is no doubt an impoverishment, but it isalmost impossible to reproduce the quantitative meters ofSanskrit in a stress-timed language such as English.Though my translation is no more than a faint echo ofthe original, I think it is an English poem in its ownright. Its rhythmic flow is unmistakable and so is itsuninhibited celebration of erotic love between a man anda woman in the true spirit of the Kamasutra. Englishdoes not have a tradition of erotic poetry comparable tothat of Sanskrit or Greek. Therefore tone becomes ofutmost importance in communicating the erotic mood ofthe Sanskrit poem. It has to be carefully modulated tosound right to an English ear without being offensive. Intranslating from Sanskrit into English, one translates notjust the text but an entire worldview which remains hiddenlike so many roots beneath the text.Here is another anonymous poem, “The Pledge,”from the Subhasitaratnakosa (The Classic Anthology ofFine Verses, ca. 1100):gate premabandhe hrdayabahumane vigalitenivrtte sadbhave jana iva jane gacchati purah |66 Translation Review
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TRANSLATION REVIEWNo. 66, 2003TABLE
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NOT GETTING IT RIGHTBy David Ferry[
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Page 42 and 43: ON THE CATHAY TOUR WITH ELIOT WEINB
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