Translation in my repertoire

_____________________________________________________
I had posted a few poems in my earlier blog (now defunct), translating them from their originals that are written in Oriya. The poet, Mr Gouri Shankar Kar, a colleague of mine at Bhubaneswar, is a prolific literary talent. He has so far three books of poem collections to his credit and all his poems are immensely readable and poetically profound. Doing translation was the first experience of mine and while doing this I could realise that writing poem is much easier than translating them from language to language. Besides, I could realise how ill-equipped I am to recreate the muse of a different poet with authenticity. But at the end of the day, I could deliver. The poet Mr Kar also endorsed them.
______________________________________________________
Treaty (1)
========================
A poem in Oriya by Shri Gouri Shankar Kar
Translated by A. N. Nanda
* * * * * * * * *
War, the inevitable
Ready with the treaty, aren’t you?

No matter nobody is aware
of its consequence
War is just a situation
Like death, the ever-present.
Here Time is in action
And Time is in uniform.
You and I are just at mercy
Of the terms of the treaty
Thrust upon, the unwelcome.

War—Don’t ask why
Useless, its cause and remedy
Maybe it’s for a territory
minuscule as a point of needle.
It lays eggs at the battleground
And bursts elsewhere at the nest of a cuckoo
The son of the gun
Gnaws at its convenience.

War for woman
War against theft,
War is for religion
and war is for wealth;
War for son and war for wife
War for sex and war for avarice
War is for everything
Even war is for a war
Long-drawn and never-ending.

So long world has
Days and nights
War will exist
And war will persist.
War is just inevitable
Ready with the treaty,
aren’t you?
________
Date of translation
08/07/2006
Bhubaneswar
********

Treaty (2)
===================================
A poem in Oriya by Shri Gouri Shankar Kar
Translated by A. N. Nanda
* * * * * * * * *
The storm inside
Turbulent like the eternal
bloat of the roaring sea,
Here goes the bellicose mind
Unsettled and feverish.

War is a mentality,
The primeval polarization
Between gods and demons,
The holy Trinity of Brahma
Vishnu and Shiva,
All are its reflections.

War—don’t ask why
It just breaks out.
For, a cause trivial
As your inability to smile or play
May land you there,
History gets chronicled
Teary and sanguinary
By the pen, self-propelled and all-knowing.

To quell, to subjugate
No matter if it's self-inflicted
The smouldering fire
of ego and self-aggrandisement
is ablaze for aeons,
For no victory or for no debacle
This war is to be faught as such.

The war is inevitable
Ready with the treaty, aren’t you?
__________
Date of translation 08/07/2006
Bhubaneswar
*********

__________________________________________________
By
A. N. Nanda
06-03-2007
Berhampur
___________________________________________________