I AM YOUR TRANSLATOR - English translation of H S SHIVA PRAKASH's NAANU NINNA ANUVAADAKA ನಾನುನಿನ್ನ ಅನುವಾದಕ

Dear friends ... I have here made an attempt at translating a Kannada poem, NAANU NINNA ANUVAADAKA ನಾನುನಿನ್ನ ಅನುವಾದಕ, by Kannada's eminent poet and playwright Sri H. S. SHIVA PRAKASH HS Shiva Prakash. This poem is from his collection MEESALU ಮೀಸಲು. This was the only collection I had apart from his selected poems (akshara) before his HO:GI BAANI RTUGALE was released recently, so I would go to this collection often and this poem would call out to me. I finally mustered enough courage to attempt an English translation of this remarkable poem ... here it is ...

 

Kannada original: NAANU NINNA ANUVAADAKA 

ನಾನು ನಿನ್ನ ಅನುವಾದಕ

Poet: H S SHIVA PRAKASH ಎಚ. ಎಸ, ಶಿವಪ್ರಕಾಶ

English translation: S. Jayasrinivasa Rao

 

I AM YOUR TRANSLATOR

 

I am your translator

I will translate

your unforeseen tears

into the rains of Cherrapunji;

Your sudden absences

into the eternal century of snow;

Your bursts of anger 

into volcanoes;

Your despondent moments

into halted clocks;

Your smile

into another sunrise

from another shore;

Your ‘yesses’ 

into nameless fruit

of a gems-strewn island; 

Your ‘nos’ into 

centuries of shipwrecks.

 

I am your translator

I will translate

Your eyes into radiance;

Your mouth into a

parted pomegranate;

Your footsteps into 

wings;

Your melodic speech into a 

velvet-gaited sonnet;

Your breath into a

cool breeze that resides in the 

perils-sheltering sandalwood grove;

Your touch into the

supple touch of the 

Himalayan zephyr;

Where rhythms and bells resonate,

Where sacred chants resound,

Where the snow-linga melts in the river of fire,

When it comes to your holy shrine 

all my translations dissolve

I get translated

into you

 

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