[Translation] I, Me and Myself

This is a tribute to Kunjunni Master.
He was a "nimisha kavi" or a "spur-of-the-moment Poet" as you may call it.
He recently left for his heavenly abode.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1464675.cms

I wish to share with you one of his verses, by way of my humble attempt at translation. If my translation can imaprt even a small tip of the sarcasm and wit Kunjunni Master had laced the original verse with, I will consider myself utterly fortunate.

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“nju” follows “Ku”
After “nju” comes “nni”
after “Ku” “nju” and “nni”
say “Kunjunni”
After “Kunjunni”, but what?

Perched atop one flower,
how keen my heart is
to drain the nectar off another one

Pride myself I do, of being holier
than the beads of rosary, but
smaller I am than a Gingely seed,
the truth, I forget

Mounted on my back, a mammoth Pachyderm
On the tip of my tongue, sits a goat-kid
I, but a small Ant!

I can sit
in the lap of “Myself”
or on its brim,
in front of it
or at the back
I can hover atop
or even sit at its feet
I can be as slippery as Gingely oil
Or I can even take the form of Myself.

Am I a bow-string to myself
If so, who is the arrow?

Of help to myself, I can never be
I conclude, etch it in my memory
To scratch itself,
an arm is but helpless

From where emanates this stink?

How to break the shackles of my soul?

Misplaced I have, myself somewhere!!

A poet, I am
A shrewd poet
A sarcastic poet
Yet, one who sows.

My father, I will now be
then mother
then son and then daughter
Later?
I will become the me in myself!!!

Bend I will not like a bangle
but in bangle-pieces I may sprout

They come back to me
whatever I send forth
With a sly smile he watches from up there,
the old peon, we all call God

Long journey
a dusk in monsoon
I, a loner

Am I, Kunjunni?
or is Kunjunni, me?

In my name lie my roots

My soul, my fortress

I alone am the poem for myself

I am in search of the Tiger
who gobbled me up

I have never learnt to sleep
So how do I learn, to wake up?

The one who feeds of infants,
Kunjunni.

Slight is my being
nothing much to say either
and to say what I wish to say
many words, I do not need

A watchdog fastened at the gate,
Does it have an address?

In my name, I take pride.

When I woke up, I couldn’t see myself
My luck!!!

Being dwarf makes me tall
It’s my virtue, I realize

My world
Your world
But there is nothing we could call ours.

The figment of whose imagination am I?

It is me who has borne
and given birth to myself

Am I, Kunjunni?
or is Kunjunni, me?

Conditioned to walk over me,
are my feet.

A woman’s waist, I haven’t seen yet
They say, when I do,
Shrink, I may, to be a half-poet
or even a wasted one.

I do not despise the progressives
I am not ultra-modern
neither am I modern
I am just a deep-rooted man
A deep-rooted man

I, a house on rent
Whose?
and who resides there?

Assume I live
only for me to die
For me to live,
who will then agree to die?

I am nailed
to a cross that is me
But Alas, become Christ, I still do not!

I am only a sorrow

I burn like that lamp,
the one who beckons the bee in me
looking for the nectar, that is me,
in that flower, that is me

If I were not what I am
this universe wouldn’t be the way it is!!
Aha!! I, me and myself!!

I am not tall do not praise me to heaven
I lack humility, so inflate not, my ego!

I eat when hungry
Drink when thirsty
Tired, I sleep
and write poetry while I sleep.


“Njaan” A Malayalam Poem by Kunjunni Master
Translation by Vijay © 22nd March, 2006


Malayalam Glossary
Kunju = Infant/Baby/small
Unni = Infant/Baby
Unnu = feed