Here is another ‘Hyderabad’ fragment from K. V. Tirumalesh’s AKSHAYA KAVYA ... this one reads like a city-bus journey from Tarnaka to Koti ... and, does the poet take you for a ride? ... and what a ride this is ...
POET: K. V. Tirumalesh
KANNADA ORIGINAL: first line of the fragment:
ಕೋಠಿ ಆಗಯೀ ಕೋಠಿ ಆಗಯೀ
‘Koti aa gayi, Koti aa gayi’ from AKSHAYA KAVYA (2010)
ENGLISH TRANSLATION: S. Jayasrinivasa Rao
Oh man, you who are yelling,
‘Koti aa gayi, Koti aa gayi,’
Where have you come from?
Where are all these people going?
To one destination, but with
different intentions, as if
I’m standing at one place hanging
on to the handgrip
Vidyanagar, Shankarmath, Nallakunta,
Koranti Hospital, Barkathpura
How many times?
A young man and a girl next to him
In this crush too they have made
space for themselves
Leg-space, hand-space
Space for the body to shrink, to swell
She was pregnant
Another fellow is snoozing here
Yet another fellow is looking
worriedly outside the window
An endless journey
Ads for abortion without surgery
in red words stuck by an unseen hand
above our heads
Which woman in this crowd is headed there?
Otherwise why make this futile effort?
The driver is sitting like god
His face can’t be seen, body can’t be seen
One hand on the gear-stick can be seen
The conductor is like the messenger of god
‘Ticket, ticket’ he says as he comes circling
He stretches his arm like the long arm of the law
When he thumps the roof the bus stops
When he thumps the roof the bus starts
He is the last spokesperson
of the government, this conductor
Oh passenger, you who have been yelling
‘Koti aa gayi, Koti aa gayi,’ since a long time,
What on earth is waiting for you in Koti?
What sort of hope or is it anxiety?
Two hundred years ago
on a bullock cart too
this same man was yelling
as he is now
I for one behaved as if
I didn’t know any of this
Unable to speak despite knowing
all that would happen in the future
People are climbing
like ants onto the mountain
I can see that from the mountain on this side
I too was with them earlier
Then I wouldn’t have been able to see this scene
When I can see this I am not with them
What’s across the mountain?
Could anyone living on the other side
be looking at me?
Should I be with them or be looking at them?
‘Uthro, uthro,’ said the driver and
pushed them out
People roll and roll and fall like sacks
into deathworld
*****
No comments:
Post a Comment