April 14, 2008
February 16, 2008
Night on the Island
Please click on the image to the left to get a legible copy. [Note: I haven't yet figured out how to over come this one limitation of the site to post work in a foreign language.]
This is a translation of Pablo Neruda's poem Night on the Island from the collection The Captain's Verses. I translated it while relaxing at a local bookstore before Valentine's Day and read it to my wife on Valentine's Day. Later, while I was visiting my parents in India, my dad's friend, poet and professor Sushanta Basu changed few words to make it somewhat palatable.
Some learning happened while he was going through my writing with a professorial touch. He commented that translation is not an easy thing. Then he quoted a very famous Bengali poet Buddhadev Basu as saying that translation is like a French girl - if she is good looking then she isn't following the rules of normal social conduct, if she is, then most likely she isn't attractive enough. The same principle, according to him, applies to translations of poetic work. If the translator is trying to stay too close to the original, s/he may lose its poetic essence and the translated work becomes a prose. The key is to maintain balance.
Later that evening, my uncle Sona Kaku, who is a poet and member of a poetic society in south Calcutta, told me that I should concentrate on writing original than trying to translate. However, Pablo Neruda being one of my favorite poets, I decided to post the translation that I did to kill time even if it may have lost the poetic brilliance that the original Spanish verse may have portrayed.
© 2008 Sanjoy Haldar
This is a translation of Pablo Neruda's poem Night on the Island from the collection The Captain's Verses. I translated it while relaxing at a local bookstore before Valentine's Day and read it to my wife on Valentine's Day. Later, while I was visiting my parents in India, my dad's friend, poet and professor Sushanta Basu changed few words to make it somewhat palatable.
Some learning happened while he was going through my writing with a professorial touch. He commented that translation is not an easy thing. Then he quoted a very famous Bengali poet Buddhadev Basu as saying that translation is like a French girl - if she is good looking then she isn't following the rules of normal social conduct, if she is, then most likely she isn't attractive enough. The same principle, according to him, applies to translations of poetic work. If the translator is trying to stay too close to the original, s/he may lose its poetic essence and the translated work becomes a prose. The key is to maintain balance.
Later that evening, my uncle Sona Kaku, who is a poet and member of a poetic society in south Calcutta, told me that I should concentrate on writing original than trying to translate. However, Pablo Neruda being one of my favorite poets, I decided to post the translation that I did to kill time even if it may have lost the poetic brilliance that the original Spanish verse may have portrayed.
© 2008 Sanjoy Haldar
October 18, 2007
Unknown Lady Against Geometrical Backdrop
I used to draw and paint growing up. Somewhere on the way, I lost that gift. I made another attempt between 1993 and 1996; sold few during auctions for charities but then stopped again due to workload and work-life imbalance. Last year, as I was going through an extremely difficult phase of life, I picked up the colored pencils again. This is one of the early attempts to revive my skills.
© 2007 Sanjoy Haldar
September 24, 2007
This Moment
This moment -
A mother rejoices her new born
Another father laments his loss –
an angel comes to the Garden of Eden
this very moment.
The morning sun ushers in a ray of hope.
Someplace else darkness falls –
an evil world wakes up into treachery and treason
This moment a seed of love gets planted
as a plot of deception unfolds.
An artist feels the pang of creation
The anarchist celebrates the plight of destruction
Someone’s first date, someone’s first kiss -
Someone’s parting kiss?
- a bride sees her love off to a war
While a family reunites, another breaks
right this very moment.
This very moment
We love, we hate
We revenge, we forgive
We are humans – God’s greatest creation!
© 2007 Sanjoy Haldar
A mother rejoices her new born
Another father laments his loss –
an angel comes to the Garden of Eden
this very moment.
The morning sun ushers in a ray of hope.
Someplace else darkness falls –
an evil world wakes up into treachery and treason
This moment a seed of love gets planted
as a plot of deception unfolds.
An artist feels the pang of creation
The anarchist celebrates the plight of destruction
Someone’s first date, someone’s first kiss -
Someone’s parting kiss?
- a bride sees her love off to a war
While a family reunites, another breaks
right this very moment.
This very moment
We love, we hate
We revenge, we forgive
We are humans – God’s greatest creation!
© 2007 Sanjoy Haldar
August 25, 2007
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