[Transcreation] Shadow

When it elongates, enlarges

and then shrinks itself,

the Shadow isn’t biding time,

for all you know.



It might just be its efforts

to cover the sorrow and pain

of having to meekly live

for a lifetime

underneath one man.




A poem in Malayalam by Veerankutti
Transcreation by Vijay © 28th February, 2008

[Transcreation] Hampi

Evenings in Hampi*

are done in gold

Like golden epochs,

they lose their sheen quickly


It isn’t the Sun

which caressed a whole town

to gold, nor is it Indra*

who removed its soiled cover

I am sure,

within its barren temples

is a suffocated past,

alongside Tungabhadra*

is a vibrant present

But, a future? I doubt.


A poem in Malayalam by Venu Kandurkunnu
Transcreation by Vijay © 6th February, 2008



*Hampi

*Indra

*Tungabhadra

[Transcreation] Gaya

Gaya

A cruel lesson!

 

Beside

the star retreats,

named synonymous

with the Great one,

prostrate seedy by-lanes

in yellow tatters

 

Like Bodhisatva*

from the Jataka* tales,

the Banyan is in

its umpteenth reincarnation

 

It’s roots are on sale,

at every nook and corner,

at obscene prices

 

A tonsured evening

gets lost in the cacophony

of bells and conchs

-shuns prayer

 

The progenies of Bimbisara* know,

the teeming crowd,

their lame limbs,

are beyond His reach

 

The Nirvana attained by

the ones who walk out

is alien to the ones

who are thrown out

 

A Banyan’s shade is not must

to attain enlightenment

I realized

at the railway platform

 

I became Buddha

before my adieu to Gaya

 

 

 

A poem in Malayalam by Venu Kandurkunnu

Transcreation by Vijay © 6^th February, 2008

 

 

* Bodhisattva

* Jataka

* Bimbisara

[Transcreation] Reasons

A moustache
Neatly combed hair
A confident smile
Taut English

Wider eyes
A leather bound
Indian Passport
inside of which smarts
a snap of mine
on a Schengen Visa

This is all that I have, and
my co-passenger to France,
the Korean, lacks
and also perhaps the reason why
only I am detained*
at Airports and Railway Stations
by inquisitive Gendarmes



A poem in Malayalam by Pramod K.M.
Transcreation by Vijay © 5th February, 2008

*NB: The word detained is used deliberately but not meant to connote an arrest.