Guest poem sent in by Arunasri Nishtala
(Poem #1575) A Good Poem A good poem is like finding a hole
in the palace
wall--
never know what you
might
see.
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(translated by Daniel Ladinsky) The poem above is written by Tukaram (c. 1608-1649), a Marathi uplifting poet. I have never read the original (I am not a Maharashrian), and I do not know how good the translation is, I must confess. Nevertheless, I liked it and thought I'd share it with you. I chose to send this poem because it has an interesting fundamental definition of poetry. Secondly I guess I want to motivate you guys into putting effort into Indian and other language poetry translations. It certainly will increase verity on the abstract beauty of thoughts. (Yes, translations can sometime be not well done, I understand) Arunasri Nishtala [Martin adds] Arunasri raises a rather interesting point - should a translation of a poem be judged more on its accuracy or on its poetic merits? If it turned out that today's poem was indeed *not* a faithful translation of Tukaram's original (and if any Marathi speaker knows the original, do write in!) would it affect its value as a poem in its own right? And more fundamentally, is poetry even 'translatable', or is the translator inevitably creating a new work of art, in collaboration with but not identifiable with the original? martin [Links] Biography of Tukaram: http://www.tukaram.com/pages/intro1.asp And a somewhat blurby one of Ladinsky: [broken link] http://www.tgrady.com/ladinsky.htm
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