Dear friends ... here is my Kannada translation of Grace Nichols' English poem Women and Bird in the Moonlight. Grace Nichols hails from Guyana in the West Indies and moved to England in 1977. This poem is inspired by the Spanish painter Joan Miro's painting of the same name.
I have taken this poem from the delightful book of poems by Grace Nichols called Paint me a Poem: New Poems Inspired by Art in the Tate. She did a year's residency at the Tate Art Gallery, London, which "involved responding to paintings through poetry as well as working with children from primary schools around London." This book also has poems by some of the primary school children alongside Nichols' poems on a painting or a sculpture. It is a beautiful experience to see how a child and a grown-up person perceive the same painting. I wanted to choose one such painting that has poems by Nichols and a child and translate both poems, but I was not confident enough to translate a child's poem. As Picasso said, "It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child."
ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಷ್ ಮೂಲ: Women and Bird in the Moonlight
ಕವಿ: ಗ್ರೇಸ್ ನಿಕೊಲ್ಸ್ Grace Nichols,
Guyana (The Caribbean) & England
ಕನ್ನಡಕ್ಕೆ: ಎಸ್ ಜಯಶ್ರೀನಿವಾಸ ರಾವ್
ಬೆಳದಿಂಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ನಾರಿಯರು ಮತ್ತು ಹಕ್ಕಿ
ನಿನ್ನ "ಬೆಳದಿಂಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ನಾರಿಯರು ಮತ್ತು ಹಕ್ಕಿ"
ನನಗೆ ಇಷ್ಟ,
ಆದರೆ, ಯಾಕೇಂತ ಕೇಳಬೇಡ, ಮಿರೋ,
ನನಗೆ ಗೊತ್ತಿಲ್ಲ, ಅಷ್ಟೇ.
ಅದು ಆ ನಕ್ಷತ್ರ ಇರಬಹುದು
ಯಾ ನೀಲಿ ಬಾಲದ ಹಕ್ಕಿ ಇರಬಹುದು.
ಆ ಮುಖಗಳ ಬಾಗು
ಯಾ ಹವೆಯ ಜಾದೂ.
ಅದು ಆ ಬಣ್ಣಗಳಿರಬಹುದು,
ಆ ಚುಕ್ಕೆಗಳು, ಆಕಾರಗಳು --
ಕೂಡಿ ಬಂದಿವೆ ಒಂದು ಕವನದಂತೆ
ಬೆಳಗುವ ರಾತ್ರಿಯ ಮುಖದ ಮೇಲೆ.
ನಿನ್ನ "ಬೆಳದಿಂಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ನಾರಿಯರು ಮತ್ತು ಹಕ್ಕಿ"
ನನಗೆ ಇಷ್ಟ,
ಆದರೆ, ಯಾಕೇಂತ ಕೇಳಬೇಡ, ಮಿರೋ,
ನನಗೆ ಗೊತ್ತಿಲ್ಲ, ಅಷ್ಟೇ.
*****
