Showing posts with label Accha-Telugu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Accha-Telugu. Show all posts

Sunday, October 13, 2019

అచ్చతెలుగు సీసపద్యపు సొగసు


మిశ్రమ తెలుగులో నారాయణ దాసు గారు రచించిన సీస పద్యాల సౌందర్యవైనము ఈ బ్లాగులో ఇంతకుముందు ప్రచురించిన రెండు మూడు లఘు వ్యాసాలలో ప్రస్తావించాము. ఆయన రచించిన అచ్చతెలుగు సీసపద్య సౌందర్యము దీనిలో చూడవచ్చు: 

నిప్పుల కుప్పయ్యనే యలరుల పాన్పు
                  మేనుడికించె దెమ్మెర చెలంగి
పట్టదు కూరుకు కిట్టదు బువ్వ, యే
పని సల్పుటకునైన బాలుపోవ
దుల్లముఁ మఱపింప నుగ్మలుల్ కావించు
నిమ్ము కిడుముడి యిన్మఢించె
నేవైపు గాంచిన నీవె కన్నుల గట్టి
నట్లుంటి విందొక నాగె నుసురు
మాటి కచ్చిక బుచ్చిక మాటలాడి
మరులు పుట్టించి తగులము మప్పి మఱల
జెచ్చెరన్వచ్చెదనటంచు నచ్చజెప్పి
యేల రావైతి వింగ వీడ్కోలు గొంగ

(గౌరి మహేశునికై చెందిన విరహ ఘట్టము లోనిది ఈ పద్యముఅచ్చతెలుగు హరికథ, గౌరప్ప పెండ్లిపు. 16)  

Wednesday, August 22, 2018

"రుబాయియత్ అఫ్ ఒమర్ ఖైయం" బృహద్గ్రంధానికి అచ్చ-తెలుగు పద్య ప్రశంస


శ్రీ ఆదిభట్ల నారాయణ దాసు గారు 1932లో ఒమర్ ఖైయం రుబాయీలను మరియు వాటికి ఎడ్వర్డ్ ఫిట్జ్ గెరాల్డ్ రచించిన ఆంగ్లానువాదాలను సంస్కృతము, అచ్చ-తెలుగు భాషలలోకి అనువదించారు. మూల పాఠము దాని ఆంగ్లానువాదముల తులనాత్మక పరిశోధన ఆ అనువాదాల లక్ష్యము. ఆ బృహద్గ్రంధము అనేక పండిత ప్రశంసలు అందుకుంది. The Hyderabad Bulletin అనే ఆంగ్ల పత్రిక 1937 జనవరి 16న సంపాదకీయంగా ప్రచురించిన సమీక్షను ఈ బ్లాగులో 2010 అక్టోబరు 28న ప్రచురించాము. ఆ గ్రంధాన్ని ప్రశంసిస్తూ శ్రీ నిడదవోలు వేంకటరావు గారు అచ్చ-తెలుగులో రచించిన పద్యాలను ఈ దిగువన ఇస్తున్నాము.


Sunday, September 21, 2014

‘IT IS NOT MY HABIT TO HAVE MY WORKS CORRECTED AND RECAST BY OTHERS’


The following (as are some earlier snippets in this blog) is a rough extract from a new biography of Pandit Narayana Das. It is still a work in progress and the extracts are likely to undergo changes.

Translating ‘Rubaiyat of Omar Khaiyam’ into Samskrutam and Atcha-Telugu 

The reason that attracted Narayana Das to Omar Khaiyam could perhaps be a shared worldview towards life and religion. Both of them were Sun-worshippers and polymaths. In his introduction to the 
Rubaiyat of Omar Khaiyam, Narayana Das says “Omar Khaiyam commences his verses with the word “Khurshid”, which means the Sun; because I presume he was a sun worshipper…

Omar Khaiyam’s interests extended from poetry, music, philosophy and theology to mathematics, astronomy, geography, mineralogy and meteorology. Narayana Das’ interests extended from poetry, music and musicology, literature and linguistics, dance and acting, philosophy, theology and Vedic studies to astrology and medicine (Ayurveda). Of these ‘Vedic studies’ is itself a conglomeration of various branches of theology, philosophy, arts and sciences.

Neither of them was properly understood by his contemporaries during his life time. Omar Khaiyam was seen either as an atheist and hedonist or at the other extreme, as a mystical Sufi poet. In the case of Narayana Das although his proclivity to the Bhakti tradition was never in doubt, his philosophy of humanism might not have been fully understood. While Narayana Das devoted his life to the teaching of ‘BhaktiJnanaMoksha he condemned with vehemence some prevailing practices of his time as unacceptable, as he felt they were at variance with the spirit of Vedic philosophy.

As has been said earlier Narayana Das used to absorb knowledge from his environs just as a sponge absorbed water, and improve upon it. After coming into contact with the Hindustani musician, Mohabbat Khan at Vizianagaram, he cultivated the Hindustani genre of music to develop a Carnatic-Hindustani hybrid timbre. Similarly when he was thirty-seven he came into contact with a Maulvi, he utilized the opportunity to pick up the rudiments of Arabic and Persian from him, obtained books on their teaching and began developing his knowledge of the two languages.

His interest in Persian grew when he observed that Old Persian* has some resemblance to Prakrit, considered to be the colloquial form of literary Samskrutam. This could well be the case because Old Avestan, the precursor of the Iranian languages, was closer to what linguists call ‘Indic Samskrutam’ whereas Young Avestan was closer to Persian. In fact both Old Persian and Middle Persian were written from left to right like Prakrit unlike their modern day version, which adapted the Perso-Arabic script. In his Samskrutam introduction to “Rubaiyat of Omar Khaiyam” Narayana Das observed that although there were yavana** terms, much of the Rubaiyat Omar Khaiyam wrote was in Old Persian, which in his view was closer to Prakrit.

Over time, Narayana Das developed a great admiration for the Persian philosopher-poet. When he read Edward Fitzgerald’s English translation of the Persian quatrains, he felt they were not true to the original. It is now known that not only Fitzgerald’s translations were not literal but he also mingled the quatrains. Fitzgerald’s translation has about three hundred verses. Of these Narayana Das selected a hundred and ten and their original Persian quatrains and translated the original and their English translation into Samskritam and Accha-Telugu.

Translating from one language to another could be a daunting task because it is not just conveying the meaning of words. A language evolved over time embeds the culture and traditions; beliefs and values; rituals and practices and history and legends of a society in its usage and idioms. If the translator is not proficient in either of the languages, he might miss the meaning altogether or the translation might appear to be artificial like a patchwork quilt. Good translation requires not only proficiency in both the languages but great technical skill to express the idiom of one language in the corresponding idiom of the other. As languages continue to evolve, meanings of words and usages change; metaphors that form the substrate of idioms might lose their relevance or the flavour of idioms might change. Therefore translating from an ancient language to another classical language requires great scholarship if one were to convey the true intended meaning of the original writer. 

Narayana Das translated Omar Khaiyam’s Rubaiyat when he was well into his sixties and published the book when he was sixty-eight. This was what former president of India Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, then Vice-Chancellor of Andhra University, had to say of the translations in his ‘FOREWORD’:

“[…] was greatly struck by his varied talents, remarkable linguistic equipment, and technical power of versification. […] The Telugu verses are written in what is called Atcha Telugu or pure Telugu, which is rather difficult. […] I am tempted to congratulate him on a performance which, taking all things into account, is certainly astounding.” 

The book opens with a prayer in four languages, Persian, English, Samskrutam and Telugu. The poem was written in the Kandam metre, one of the toughest prosodies in the Telugu language. Writing a poem in difficult prosody, with each line in a different language is an expression of Narayana Das’ penchant for the formidable.

He introduced Omar Khaiyam, the poet and his poetry in three languages, English, Samskrutam and Telugu. He used the introductions to express his deep admiration for Omar Khaiyam and his poetry. But the introductions were more than that. Narayana Das used them to express his worldview about his field of work, poetry and poets and to address questions like, ‘what inner urges, objectives or ideology should drive them?’ and ‘how should literature influence society?

In his English introduction he expresses the view that an original writer should take pride in having his works published as they are so that critics might see him in his true colours. It was for this reason, he says, it is not my habit to have my works corrected and recast by others’.  

He laments the propensity of literary critics to judge the work of writers based more on their outward appearance than a true evaluation of their literary work. Could Fitzgerald’s impression of how Omar lived his life coloured his translations of the poet’s immortal verses?

Did Narayana Das find a twin soul when he observed that Omar Khaiyam decried ‘all religious shows and philosophical discussions’ as ‘merely vain and whimsical actions for passing an idle life’? He says Khaiyam was vexed with the deep chasm between precept and practice of crafty philosophers. He therefore satirized their philosophy. For him pleasing society was true religion and devotion to Almighty was the happiest enjoyment. It was perhaps because of this perception that Narayana Das found in Khaiyam, a mystic rather than a romantic poet. He feels Khaiyam’s philosophy was largely misunderstood and his advocacy of wine, woman & music should be read as cryptic symbols for divine servicepure mind and meditation

Old Persian was an Iranian language which was in use from circa 600 B.C.E to 300 B.C.E. The next phase in the evolution of the language between 300 B.C.E. and 800 C.E. has been designated Middle Persian and from 800 C.E. it is known as Modern Persian or Farsi.

** By Yavana terms Narayana Das was probably referring to Middle Persian.