tadutpreksyotpreksya priyasakhi g<strong>at</strong>aste ca divasana jane ko hetuh sphut<strong>at</strong>i s<strong>at</strong>adha yannahrdayam || 18He’s broken the pledge,banished me from his heart.No more in love,he now walks in front <strong>of</strong> melike any other man.I spend my days thinking <strong>of</strong> this.Why my heart doesn’t go to pieces, dear friend,I don’t know.<strong>The</strong> woman’s lover has not kept faith with her. He hasgone back on his word and abandoned her. She is heartbrokenby his betrayal. Passing her in the street, he failsto acknowledge her as if she were a stranger. He is onher mind night and day. Devast<strong>at</strong>ed, she does not knowwh<strong>at</strong> to do. In her loneliness, she confides to a friend andwonders why she is not dead from a broken heart. In lessthan thirty words in the original Sanskrit, the poem tellsus all th<strong>at</strong> there is to know about unrequited love. It is aman’s world; he does wh<strong>at</strong> he pleases. <strong>The</strong> woman isusually helpless. <strong>The</strong> Sanskrit poem begins on an ominousnote, “g<strong>at</strong>e premabandhe” (literally, “the bond <strong>of</strong>love is broken”), th<strong>at</strong> is heartrending. <strong>The</strong> word “g<strong>at</strong>e”falls on the ear with the force <strong>of</strong> a sledgehammer. It is allover between them. <strong>The</strong>re is nothing more to be said.<strong>The</strong> rest <strong>of</strong> the poem is just a gloss on this phrase.Given the n<strong>at</strong>ure <strong>of</strong> Indian p<strong>at</strong>riarchy, it is notunusual for a woman writer to hide her name and gender.Anonymity <strong>of</strong>fered her a “refuge” from the prying eyes<strong>of</strong> men. Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) was probably rightwhen she said: “Anon, who wrote so many poems withoutsigning them, was <strong>of</strong>ten a woman.” 19 It is not improbableth<strong>at</strong> a woman wrote “<strong>The</strong> Pledge.” <strong>The</strong> female personaspeaks in her own voice; she is not manipul<strong>at</strong>ed bya male author. Women, as a rule, were not taughtSanskrit. By writing in Sanskrit freely and openly abouther own situ<strong>at</strong>ion, Anon interrog<strong>at</strong>es p<strong>at</strong>riarchy’s <strong>at</strong>titudestoward women, especially its politiciz<strong>at</strong>ion <strong>of</strong> awoman’s personal life leading to humili<strong>at</strong>ion and abuse.Love is usually depicted in Sanskrit poetry in itstwo major aspects: love-in-enjoyment (sambhoga-srngara)and love-in-separ<strong>at</strong>ion (vipralamba-srngara). “<strong>The</strong>Sheets” is a good example <strong>of</strong> the former and “<strong>The</strong>Pledge” <strong>of</strong> the l<strong>at</strong>ter.<strong>Transl<strong>at</strong>ion</strong> as Empowerment<strong>Transl<strong>at</strong>ion</strong> remains the most accessible marketplace forlinguistic exchanges to take place. A n<strong>at</strong>ion renews itselfthrough transl<strong>at</strong>ion. If it is indifferent to it, it is in danger<strong>of</strong> “falling <strong>of</strong>f the globe.” <strong>The</strong> United N<strong>at</strong>ionsDevelopment Program’s Arab Human DevelopmentReport 2002, prepared by a group <strong>of</strong> Arab intellectuals,<strong>of</strong>fers some telling d<strong>at</strong>a on transl<strong>at</strong>ion and n<strong>at</strong>ion-building.<strong>The</strong> entire Arab world, comprising twenty-two st<strong>at</strong>eswith a popul<strong>at</strong>ion <strong>of</strong> 280 million, transl<strong>at</strong>es “about 300books annually,” which is “one fifth the number th<strong>at</strong>Greece alone,” with a popul<strong>at</strong>ion <strong>of</strong> ten million, “transl<strong>at</strong>es.”Furthermore, “<strong>The</strong> cumul<strong>at</strong>ive total <strong>of</strong> transl<strong>at</strong>edbooks since the Abbasid Caliph Al-Ma’mun’s (r. 813–33)time is about 100,000, which is almost the number th<strong>at</strong>Spain transl<strong>at</strong>es in one year.” 20 <strong>Transl<strong>at</strong>ion</strong> is the oxygenth<strong>at</strong> keeps a language alive. Without it, the languagewould become stale, and its air, unbre<strong>at</strong>hable.<strong>Transl<strong>at</strong>ion</strong> has <strong>of</strong>fered the poems in the two languages— Tamil and Sanskrit — an afterlife in anotherlanguage, English. It has enabled the Indian poets to beheard across the centuries in a contemporary global languageth<strong>at</strong> has made them known throughout the world.Such is the power <strong>of</strong> transl<strong>at</strong>ion.Works CitedAll transl<strong>at</strong>ions in the text are my own.Diacritical marks are omitted except on pages 63 and 66.1Raymond Schwab, <strong>The</strong> Oriental Renaissance: Europe’sRediscovery <strong>of</strong> India and the East, 1680–1880, trans.Gene P<strong>at</strong>terson-Black and Victor Reinking (New York:Columbia UP, 1984) 7.2Ezra Pound, “Transl<strong>at</strong>ors <strong>of</strong> Greek: Early Transl<strong>at</strong>ors <strong>of</strong>Homer,” Literary Essays <strong>of</strong> Ezra Pound, ed. T. S. Eliot(London: Faber and Faber, 1954) 271.3Maynard Mack, gen. ed., <strong>The</strong> Norton Anthology <strong>of</strong>World Masterpieces, expanded ed., 2 vols. (New York:W. W. Norton, 1995).4Paula Berggren, Teaching with <strong>The</strong> Norton Anthology <strong>of</strong>World Masterpieces, expanded ed., “A Guide forInstructors” (New York: W. W. Norton, 1995).5Paul Valéry, “Concerning Le Cimetière marin,” <strong>The</strong> Art<strong>of</strong> Poetry, trans. Denise Folliot, vol. 7 <strong>of</strong> <strong>The</strong> CollectedWorks <strong>of</strong> Paul Valéry, ed. Jackson M<strong>at</strong>hews, BollingenSeries, 45 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1985) 140–41.6William Butler Ye<strong>at</strong>s, “Words,” <strong>The</strong> Collected Works <strong>of</strong>W. B. Ye<strong>at</strong>s, vol. 1: <strong>The</strong> Poems, rev. ed., ed. Richard J.Finneran (New York: Macmillan, 1989) 90.<strong>Transl<strong>at</strong>ion</strong> <strong>Review</strong> 67
7Vicente Huidobro, “Arte Poetica,” <strong>The</strong> Selected Poetry<strong>of</strong> Vicente Huidobro, ed. David M. Guss (New York:New Directions, 1981) 2.8Huidobro, “Ars Poetica,” trans. David M. Guss, <strong>The</strong>Selected Poetry <strong>of</strong> Vicente Huidobro, ed. Guss 3.9Pereyin Muruvalar, KT 17, Kuruntokai (KT), 4th printing,ed., with a commentary, U. Ve. Camin<strong>at</strong>aiyar(Madras: Sri Tiyakaraca vilaca veliyitu, 1962) 42.10William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 29,” Shakespeare’sSonnets, ed. Stephen Booth (New Haven, CT: Yale UP,1977) 28.11Kalporu Cirunuraiyar, KT 290, Camin<strong>at</strong>aiyar 539–40.12Arthur Waley, trans. “Nineteen Japanese Poems,”Madly Singing in the Mountains: An Appreci<strong>at</strong>ion andAnthology <strong>of</strong> Arthur Waley, ed. Ivan Morris (Berkeley,CA: Cre<strong>at</strong>ive Arts Book Co., 1981) 238.13Kavarpentu, PN 86, Purananuru (PN), ed., with an oldcommentary, U. Ve. Camin<strong>at</strong>aiyar, 6th printing (Madras:Sri Tiyakaraca vilaca veliyitu, 1963) 192.14Anon., AS 65, Amarus<strong>at</strong>akam (AS), with the commentarySrngaradipika <strong>of</strong> Vemabhupala, ed. and trans.Chintaman Ramachandra Devadhar (Delhi: MotilalBanarsidass, 1984) 79.15Devadhar 80.16Proverbs 7:17–18. <strong>The</strong> Bible: Authorized King JamesVersion, ed. Robert Carroll and Stephen Prickett, OxfordWorld’s Classics (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1997) 728.17Kalyanamalla, Anangaranga, trans. F. F. Arbuthnot andRichard F. Burton (New York: Medical P <strong>of</strong> New York,1964) 97.18Anon., SRK 697, Subhasitar<strong>at</strong>nakosa (SRK), comp.Vidyakara, and ed. D. D. Kosambi and V. V. Gokhale,Harvard Oriental Series, 42 (Cambridge, Harvard UP,1957) 128.19Virginia Woolf, A Room <strong>of</strong> One’s Own (San Diego,CA: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1957 [1929]) 51.20Thomas L. Friedman, “Arabs <strong>at</strong> the Crossroads,” <strong>The</strong>New York Times (3 July 2002): A23, an op-ed on the“Arab Human Development Report 2002,” UnitedN<strong>at</strong>ions Development Program, Regional Bureau forArab St<strong>at</strong>es.68 <strong>Transl<strong>at</strong>ion</strong> <strong>Review</strong>
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TRANSLATION REVIEWNo. 66, 2003TABLE
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I could about the period. I tried t
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ings are for. But there are also so
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and we see how that is expressed in
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NOT GETTING IT RIGHTBy David Ferry[
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songs of the dead,” but it’s no
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oscilla ex alta suspendunt mollia p
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FROM DEAN TO DEANTREPRENEUR: THE AC
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