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On translation, sound and associations
Dileep Jhavri's responses
A good poem can be recognised by losing the least in translation.
"This is how the good poetry has survived. But many good poems do not survive. When you think of translation beyond words on paper or digitalisation, it is a continuous process in the mind. Even within the same language a reader experiences a poem differently from another and also differently from one reading to another. Thinkers have written volumes about this and you are familiar with such philosophical works. But the fact that so much has been written with differing views certainly points to the very essence of poetry, which is simply an ongoing and ever dynamic marvel. It defies anything like a last word. It is eternally fragile and yet enduring.
What is lost in translation is compensated by an incarnation of another possibility provided in a different language. Of course this is not to justify bad translations or slothfulness. The poem is like tree that stands amazed at opening a new leaf on its branch with every new reading or a strange bird alighting with a translation. In search of ideal translation much is left out and we remain impoverished."
To paint words with sound is an art.
"This is a profound statement. It reminds one of Rimbaud. Art is not only an interplay of senses or transformation from one to other it is encompassing of the senses and meanings and associations into an entity from which will emerge a surprise like a butterfly from a chrysalis. Sound is very important not only for the music of poetry but for conveying the miracle of existence. In ancient Indian philosophy and aesthetics WORD was NadaBrahma. Nada means sound and Brahma means universe. Even today lots of yoga practitioners undergo elaborate training in exactly reciting verses of sacred texts. This is true in other religions also. Being an atheist I have no curiosity in exploring religious mysteries but what sound does in poetry has constantly been a process of learning while creating patterns of elaborate or simple meters, rhyming and evolving rhythms of speech even in blank verse.
It is this sound that defies translation. But the other language offers another set of sounds and a new perspective opens to view the painted words."
The association fields behind languages differ.
"You have stated the right thing. Poetry relies a lot on associations rather than direct statements. In Sanskrit aesthetics the word used for this is DHWANI. It also means sound but indicates indirectness and suggestion. It will be simpler to state this in the words of Rilke in his sonnets to Orpheus part 1 no. 3
Though your ringing voice may have flung your dumb mouth open thus
learn to forget these fleeting ecstasies
Far other is the breath of real singing
An aimless breath, a stirring in the god, a breeze...
From aimlessness in the beginning the poem emerges to reach godlike perfection but turns into transparent lightness in the end. This perhaps is the true attribute of great poetry. It may not happen in every poem but should always be the aim. In spite of differing associations in languages great poems have been able to seize what transcends time and space and is always here and now. Mighty Agamemnon, his strength, his greed (the quarrel with Achilles ), his hubris, his generosity (allowing Priam to carry back Hector’s body ), his accommodativeness ( in accepting the advice of Odysseus for the wooden horse ) and his inglorious death are the elements of many stories that Homer tells. Since there were several poets contributing to Iliad and Odyssey the differing associations were smoothed over and the epic became universal. But where is poetry in all this? It is in between the lines. Just one example will suffice. The quarrel with Achilles was because of Briseis and Chryseis who were taken as concubines in spite of their being daughters of priest. And now they were to be freed reluctantly, to remove the impediments from a victory still far off and illusive as well. The war was about a woman again! The tragic and hypocritical transcends details and finds associations in every language. But the poet does not rise to sermonise, he remains down to the earth. That gives him freedom to scatter more seeds of stories. But you can see the space he gains by these juxtapositions. The space provides occasion to bring about various traits of the characters. You had mentioned Virgil in one of your mails in comparison with Homer. Even though he sought royal patronage by fabricating the lineage of the Roman ruler to Hellenic Aeneas ,he asserted his loyalty to Muse (and Latin ) by siding with Dido. The route he takes is through Venus guiding Aeneas to Carthage. Love and tragic are so close! And again a woman symbolises this truth! Will the feminists re-read the classics? Ramayan and Mahabharat are actually epics of women while the male chauvinistic rulers are conferred with praises of profusely porcine proportions. The subtlety of this literature surpasses nations, cultures and language differences.
Even when the red of Hatto, Gabriel and Dileep differ from the red of Sartre and is not the same always it still is red. And that is why the literature of Sartre retains admiration of a German, Irish or Indian writer who may view his philosophy differently.
In a light vein the difference between Art and Philosophy is the same between Being and Nothingness!"
- Dileep Jhaveri (5.10.2012)
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