His face changes
when he smiles
Whole face lights up
Like a hibiscus flower
In old ladies besides
children, I have chanced upon
these smiles
Otherwise, you and I anyway exist
Who look smiling sombre
And sombre when we smile
Fond
Sourav Roy
I am fond of the neighbouring child
His face changes
when he smiles
Whole face lights up
Like a hibiscus flower
In old ladies besides
children, I have chanced upon
these smiles
Otherwise, you and I anyway exist
Who look smiling sombre
And sombre when we smile
His face changes
when he smiles
Whole face lights up
Like a hibiscus flower
In old ladies besides
children, I have chanced upon
these smiles
Otherwise, you and I anyway exist
Who look smiling sombre
And sombre when we smile
translated from the Hindi by Carol D'Souza
Listen to the poem read in the original Hindi by the translator:
The surprise and delight of encountering a familiar image employed unusually is one of the joys of reading good poetry. Sourav Roy’s work is filled with these instances. When I decided to attempt translating some of the poems from his latest collection काल बैसाखी (Nor'wester; Vani Prakashan, 2022), I was struck by how interiority and the inner world were woven together with nature and the outer one. A weaving that pointed to an uncluttered gaze. It is evident upon reading Roy’s poetry that his work of collating, analysing and translating the Japanese Haiku masters has left a mark. Crisp, yet evocative imagery can be found everywhere in his poems.
With the translation, my energy was primarily focused on retaining the musicality and rhythm of the poem in English. To this end, I tried different combinations of line breaks that would work better in English, even if it meant taking some liberties. Rhyme is another aspect that I enjoy infusing into poems. Not in a way that makes it obtrusive, but if I can, without deviating drastically from the original meaning and intent, I like for it to be a layer that works in the background, adding to the reading experience of the poem. Not to mention, as a translator, it gives me some room to experiment.
With the translation, my energy was primarily focused on retaining the musicality and rhythm of the poem in English. To this end, I tried different combinations of line breaks that would work better in English, even if it meant taking some liberties. Rhyme is another aspect that I enjoy infusing into poems. Not in a way that makes it obtrusive, but if I can, without deviating drastically from the original meaning and intent, I like for it to be a layer that works in the background, adding to the reading experience of the poem. Not to mention, as a translator, it gives me some room to experiment.
Sourav Roy is a bilingual writer, poet, journalist, and translator. He currently works as a teacher, and has been a visiting faculty member at Azim Premji University and NIFT Bengaluru in the past. He is also a core member of Anjuman, a literary club that promotes Hindi-Urdu literature in Bengaluru. A blogger since 2010, Sourav has worked as an editor at YourStory Media, where he wrote about India’s social sector. He was the editor of the magazine Bengaluru Review for over three years. He continues to write for the Deccan Herald newspaper.
His published work includes the collections of poetry काल बैसाखी (Nor'wester; Vani Prakashan, 2022) and यायावर (Traveller; Universal Grand Apps, 2015), the edited volumes of poetry and plays, कर्णकविता (Karnakavita; Atta Galatta, 2015) and तीन नाटक (Three Plays; Bloomsbury, 2018), and the translations of plays, सोहो में मार्क्स (Marx in Soho; Rajkamal Prakashan, 2018) and Japanese Haiku, ओस की पृथ्वी (An Earth of Dew; Vani Prakashan, 2019).
Carol D'Souza is a writer and translator based in Chennai, India. Her poetry in English has appeared in Qurbatein, ASAP|art, The Sunflower Collective, Almost Island, Hakara, Indian Cultural Forum, voice & verse, the Economic and Political Weekly, Muse India, and elsewhere. Her translations of Uday Prakash and Amrita Pritam’s poetry from Hindi to English are forthcoming in the Red River Anthology of Twenty-First Century Hindi Poets and Usawa Literary Review respectively. A collation of her work can be found here.
