Imagination
at its sensuous best
TO
imagine the clouds as a befitting messenger for carrying amorous messages to
an estranged lover is a highpoint of creativity, especially in an age when
literary traditions are not yet established. It takes the genius of a Kalidasa
to not only conjure up such an archetype but also use it to create an enchanted
universe of love, separation, fealty, and longing that is unique in world
literature. In a grand sweep Kalidasa delivers the high points of human
passion, the many expressions of nature, and the mosaic of Indian landscape
that makes the poem soothing and graceful. The storyline of Meghadutam
is
simple: a yaksha under curse of estrange-ment from his beloved at Ramagiri
hills in Central India is urging a passing cloud to take his message to his
lover who is living at Alaka on Mount Kailash. The poem is written in 111
stanzas in two cantos, namely Purba Megha (Advent of the First Cloud) and
Uttara Megha (The Cloud Later). The poem was first translated into English by
Horace Hayman Wilson in 1813. Since then, it has been translated several times
into various languages.
The
celebrated poem is presented in coffee table book form by two researchers of
classical literature namely Dr Ajit Kumar Tripathy and Sri Purna Chandra
Tripathy. Each stanza is presented with an exquisite piece of painting by
Chintamani Biswal. The book opens with a foreword by Dr Karan Singh, the
connoisseur of ancient literature and philosophy. Dr Singh sets the tone for
the lyrical grace that the poem proffers. The brief preface by Dr A.K.Tripathy
and Sri P.C. Tripathy discusses the views of many scholars of the past and
present starting with the first English translator Mr Wilson, who have brought
the beauty of Kalidasa's artistry before the lovers of litera-ture. The editors
have made an attempt to chart the course of the poem's geography and present a
different perspective as to the locale of the narrative. Basing on the
similarity of place names and other logic they are of the view that Ramagiri
hills, where the Yaksha lives, belongs to the Koraput district of Odisha.
The
translation into English in verse libre is soothing and conveys the meaning and
the feeling completely. Here is how Kalidasa's description of river Gambhira is
presented in English translation.
"By sucking up
the water would you have removed
from the waist of
river Gambhira her blue water robe, slipping it down her sloping flanks
exposing her body
down to hips with nothing but a row of hanging canes touching the water that
she would use as her slender hands
to hold on to the
slipping robe
to cover her loins
and exposed thighs. Experienced you are
in enjoying such
amorous pleasures in the past,
having bent down
over her so near and so close difficult it would be my friend
to depart from a
mistress
with her charms
exposed."
(Stanza 44, Purba Megha Canto)
The
poem is full of such exquisite descriptions of man and nature in passionate
interaction, made more live by love and yearning. Would you ever find a more
sensuous description than the following?
" Her waist
you find unadorned
by the usually worn
waist band of a string of pearls, caste aside by her
at the adverse turn
of destiny.
Her lovely thigh
which I used to stroke and gently knead with my hands
at the end of
love's enjoyment,
and nail marks, you
would not find there now. Yellow-white and juicy as a tender banana stalk it
would still be
throbbing when you
arrive".
(Stanza 36, Uttara Megha Canto)
The successful translation of 'Meghadoota' in Bengali language was done by Dr. Jogindranath Majumdar,(Calcutta, India) for the first time keeping its original "Mandakranta metre".
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot for the information.
DeletenamastE,
ReplyDeleteWhere can this book be purchased from? Who published it? What is the full title?
Thank you for this information