THIS YEAR’S YUGADI - Translation of 'EE SALADA YUGADI' ಈ ಸಲದ ಯುಗಾದಿ

ANOTHER YUGADI POEM FOR YUGADI ... ಯುಗಾದಿಗೆ ಇನ್ನೊಂದು ಯುಗಾದಿ ಕವನ

Continuing with the spirit of Yugadi ... here is my English translation of a Yugadi poem by K. V. Tirumalesh ... EE SALADA YUGADI ಈ ಸಲದ ಯುಗಾದಿ ... from his 1986 collection 'AVADHA' ... 

 

 

Kannada original: EE SALADA YUGADI ಈ ಸಲದ ಯುಗಾದಿ

Poet: K. V. TIRUMALESH

English translation: S. Jayasrinivasa Rao

 

THIS YEAR’S YUGADI

 

This year’s Yugadi is not like last year’s Yugadi 

Last year’s Yugadi was like a dry thunderstorm; 

it flashed and rumbled and went away 

without soaking the earth.

 

This year’s Yugadi would truly begin 

a new year – and so, as soon as I sit down 

to pen new resolutions, I was attacked

 

by mosquitoes!  You, at the beginning of this year, 

we, at the end, they sing.  I won’t fear 

for I have bought a new mosquito net.

 

This year’s yugadi is not like last year’s Yugadi – 

how would these insects know this?  On last year’s 

Yugadi we had poppyseed payasa, seekaraNe*, new clothes,

 

a movie, company of women, lots of fun, honestly; 

this time none of these.  Only memories.  

Memories are sweeter than reality I believe and

 

I savour the breeze, and the aroma of my

beautiful neighbour’s cooking that floats in with the breeze! 

For this year’s Yugadi I have Greek plays

 

Ionesco’s stories, Ananthamurthy’s ‘Avasthe.’

Enough no, what more does a writer want?

Apart from these, there are few bits written by me.

 

So that they don’t fly away I have kept 

them under a stone procured from Haridwar.  

A round stone that had bathed in the Ganges for 

thousands of years and turned smooth.

 

It is, in reality, sitting on my conscience

soaking up all the sins of my words and their senses,

gaining weight every minute.

 

 

* A kind of sweet salad made using raw mango or plantain fruit, sugar, milk, cardamom seed powder, etc

 

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