AT KACHIGUDA RAILWAY STATION - Translation of a Hyderabad fragment KACHIGUDA NILDAANADALLI ಕಾಚಿಗುಡ ನಿಲ್ದಾಣದಲ್ಲಿ from AKSHAYA KAVYA

Here is another ‘Hyderabad’ fragment from K. V. Tirumalesh’s AKSHAYA KAVYA ... this fragment is a train journey from Kachiguda station is Hyderabad ... I discovered Astapovo for myself for the first time while translating this fragment ... and how that elevates this train journey!!   

 

POET: K. V. Tirumalesh

KANNADA ORIGINAL: first line of the fragment: ಕಾಚಿಗುಡ ನಿಲ್ದಾಣದಲ್ಲಿ

‘At Kachiguda railway station’ from AKSHAYA KAVYA (2010)

ENGLISH TRANSLATION: S. Jayasrinivasa Rao

 

 

 

At Kachiguda railway station all were there 

and none were there

I looked around, no familiar faces

All travellers were new

Yet the expression on their faces 

were not new I felt 

I have seen that many times 

at many places the same

And then from one station to another station

featureless shops pushcarts coolies

beggars itinerant hawkers 

debauched expressions

railway officers the engine’s whistle

The grating wheels

over the bridge it went

cleaving familiar forests

rolling on into the lap of the Arabian Sea

It was this same train that bored through 

the belly of Sahyadri mountains

 

Half-awake and the other half asleep

the train was running 

over me the whole night

 

The night continued as night

And when dawn broke on the east

I was hearing chatter from another land 

in another tongue 

gestures and expressions were a bit different

 

I have to but alight at the designated place

if not today, tomorrow

So many revolutionary thoughts 

are sitting up awake in my head

Like the passenger sitting by the window

Like there was something of note 

in every scene that was flashing past

 

Could I wave to myself

when I get down?

Out of sheer habit 

would I raise my arm in return?

What will they think 

those who are walking ahead

I waved for them they’d think

Oh, my thoughts,

Why have you abandoned me?

 

After the train leaves the station

nothing seems as barren as the rails

Astapovo, have we reached Astapovo

I continue to ask everybody 

Though the train has left Kachiguda

it hasn’t left Kachiguda  

I was in a hurry to get off 

even before we started off

I never knew if it was before 

or after Astapovo 

 

*****