Aablaapaa Koi
Only a frenzied madman
Blisters on his feet
Would venture into this storm
And light a lamp in it
Bringing alive particles of dust
With his prostrations upon the sand
Turning disused idols of clay
Into gods once again
Quenching the thirst
Of the thorny cactus
With the gift of water
From his cupped palms
Finding, perhaps, a golden stone
And holding it to his heart
Knowing that of his own soul
It is but a broken part.
Note on the trans-creation: The word ‘dasht’ can be translated variously as ‘wilderness’, ‘ruins’, ‘deserted place’. I have picked a single image, that of a desert, and taken it forth in the transcreation. The original is thus more fluid than this interpretation of it.
The actress Meena Kumari’s only outing into the world as a poetess while she lived is contained in an album titled “I write, I recite” released in 1965. The pieces are in her own voice against a musical score composed by the composer Khayyam. Her voice, with its flawless Urdu diction and its mesmerizing depths and sheer range, does great justice to the poetry in these renditions. Her poetry has been transcreated here in English by Manjul Bajaj.
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