Poetry at Sangam

SangamHouse

 










April 2014

Volume II | Issue 4

Summer’s here. Mangoes form on the old tree; faint music of the classical flute floats through the afternoon like a zephyr. Reading poetry becomes an antidote to glare as it draws us into rooms shaded with nuances. We present selections from the work of Indran Amirthanayagam who translates Mexican poet Manuel Ulacia, Joshua Gray and Menka Shivdasani.

Prize winning poet, essayist, translator and diplomat Indran Amirthanayagam translates poems by his friend, Manuel Ulacia (1953-2000) the excellent Mexican poet and translator who died tragically young in a drowning accident. Yet, in addition to his two melodious long poems, Origami for a Rainy Day (Origami para un dia de lluvia) and The Blue Plate (El plato azul) Ulacia had translated a volume of James Merrill’s poems and wrote an illuminating study of Octavio Paz. Many of his poems are about his coming to terms with his homosexuality and adolescent turmoil, and later, his search for a soul-mate. Ulacia’s voice is personal; his exquisite poems brim with movement and intensity; their unfolding narratives ring with resonating truths as in, “…What pleasure in the instant/ when bodies forget/reality and let it go /where? where?…” Inspired by the solicitation to feature Ulacia’s work on Poetry at Sangam, Amirthanayagam, who writes elegant, insightful verse in Spanish, French and English, contributed the heart-wrenching tribute Resolution: At Five in the Afternoon, that we feature in both English and original Spanish. “I continue being an apprentice in all languages;/ I confess I have acquired two others/ along the road. I have had to distract myself,/ Manuel. Memories help with emotions;/ They console, but at dawn, or at five o’clock in the afternoon–…” We soon hope to showcase more of Indran Amirthanayagam’s own poems.

Joshua Grey who lives in Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu, is originally from the USA and now a Person of Indian Origin card holder through marriage. Perhaps it’s this sense of belonging and not belonging that gives his poems their quirky, intriguing tone that’s offset by strong rhymes and rhythm as in the poem Gan/Doris, “Being a Brahmin never did help me./ I never cared for Hinduism’s embrace./ And organized religion is a disgrace./ The work it takes is worth the piece of pie./ A person’s appearance can fool the passerby…” where the persona of a Hindu (not Boston) Brahmin contrasts sharply with the Americanism , “… is worth a piece of pie.” This is from his book-length poem Principles of Belonging written in different poetic forms, including Anglo-Saxon, Blank (Iambic Pentameter), Cynneghanedd (Welsh) and Sanskrit. It follows four children who struggle for a sense of rootedness that continues to elude them even in adulthood; the world of the child presents itself through whimsical word play as when a car cruising near a seashore becomes a ‘road-boat’, and sea shells are ‘large sea-homes lounging on the tables; their leaf-sized sisters/ Displayed in baskets and glass bowls…’ Also featured from the same collection is Without Form. ‘It appears after the first part of the book, which is all formal poetry of different types, and I wanted to break out of the mindset writing such verse put me in. Furthermore, Without Form features T.S. Eliot, and my intention was to write this poem with a hint of Eliot’s influence in it,’ writes Gray.

Menka Shivdasani is a journalist and among India’s leading contemporary poets; she has worked for decades to promote poetry across various platforms beginning with being founder member of Mumbai’s Poetry Circle in 1986. Her first book of poems Nirvana at Ten Rupees was described as “one of the best first books of poetry to appear during the 1990s.” In 1998 she co-translated Freedom and Fissures: An Anthology of Sindhi Partition Poetry. Fifteen years after her first book her second collection Stet was published. The reason for the hiatus goes back to her days as an emerging voice: she took to heart Rilke’s advice, “test whether it (reasons to write) stretches its roots into the deepest part of your heart…” She adds, “While the thrill of seeing a book published is unmatched, a collection of poetry, whether digital or in print, should not be put together in a hurry, and then reduced simply to being a calling card, or an ego boost; it must be a distillation of a lifetime’s worth of thought, feeling and experience.” These long periods translate into intense empathy and biting humour where the observer and observed meld as in The Woman Who Speaks to Milk Pots: “Boil./ I shall ignore/ that steely glint/ and watch you./ I am simmering too,/ padding about / with cotton ball claws…” We are delighted to present four new poems along with a couple of her favourites.

New Releases features information on three recent books: David Need’s translations of Rainer Maria Rilke’s late French poems, Roses (from which we shall soon feature excerpts) and Joshua Grey’s books Principles of Belonging and Mera Bharat.

– Priya