SHILLONG: The event: A gathering around the hearth. The venue: You & I Arts Café. Time: A winter evening kept comfortably warm by the smell of burning charcoal and firewood. The occasion: “Poetic encounter”.
It was a perfect ambience on Friday for a poetic conversation with three poets from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. But as Rumi said, “words are a pretext, it is the inner bond that draws one person to another,’’ language was not a barrier for the poets — Kerstin Preiwuss (German), Maitrayee Patar (Assamese) and Wangphrang K Diengdoh (Khasi).
The poets read out their works in their respective languages and also translated works of the other poets.
The rendezvous was part of the ‘Poets Translating Poets’ project of the Goethe-Institut Mumbai along with the Goethe Institutes in South Asia in collaboration with the Literaturwerkstatt Berlin and in cooperation with German Commission for UNESCO. The project aims to create a platform for poets from South Asia and Germany to translate each other’s works.
As the warmth from the hearth spread, the translators, Rebekah A Tham and Vidya Sarma, shared their experience of working with the poets.
“I was sure translations happen easily. But having gone through this moment, I realised that it is like driving on Cherrapunji road on a frosty day when you have to be careful and watch out whether you have reached the edge,” Tham described, adding, “Translating from Khasi to German was tougher than from German to Khasi.”
Sarma, whose mother tongue is Marathi and Assamese is her adopted language, thanked the organisers and facilitator Mary Therese Kurkalang for the opportunity.
As part of this edition, two essays were commissioned to provide insights into the contemporary poetry scene in Shillong and in Assam and they were written by poets Lalnunsanga Ralte (aka Sanga Says) and Shalim M Hussain.
