by Crazyfinger
This poem by Malladi Ramakrishna Sastry, which I first tried to translate here, gave me the most heartache. Swarup pointed out the errors in my first attempt but I just couldn't get it right. M S Ramarao's singing (search for M S Ramarao in Singer category) makes me want to go back to being an old man in a village, waiting for his days, recalling poems, singing them to myself and soak myself in re-collections. This wish to sing for myself is not because I am turning solipsistic, but it is because it makes me feel humble even in front of a child, someone we always think we can easily overpower. It makes me feel I am already too much and just by being I am already intruding. That is the root of the desire for just not be anywhere, that desire to not to intrude in the very being itself. Songs like these bring tears of a kind for which there are no words other than the song itself. The song is a recollection. I am sure over and over again that a song like this compresses an entire universe's time span and shoves that into my being. I sound crazed but I am more alert than anytime before at moments like these; a love that is so much like home comes over me when I hear songs like these. And so, one more try...
Click here for the Telugu version at Swarup's site.
Jumpy on the net, the catch leaps with pride
Young lad in sight, forgets the body your mind
Do you deny it, young lass?
Overflowing affection, like an irresistible numbness
Overwhelms you, young lass
He who is agreeable to you is near you
Why won't you speak, young lass
---
For a discussion Swarup and I had on my previous attempt, click here.
A roughcut of the transliterated poem with English word equivalents.
(suddenly) (net) (on the) (insolently bounce) (fish)
chengoona ala meeda midisee potadi meenu
(young lad) (faced in front) (forget) (you will) (body)
chinnavaadu edaraite' marachee potavu me'nu
(would you say no) (young lass) (you)
kaadantaava? chinnadaana neevu,
(excessive) (affection) (palm branch) (numbness) (like)
vallaamaalina mamata kamma timme'ra laaga
(pervaded) (you) (young lass)
kammukunnadi ninnoo, chinnadanaa
(agreeable) (lad) (near) (is)
sammasaina vaadu sarasane' vunnado
(speak not) (why) (young lass) (you)
pallakunta ve' le' chinnadaanaa neevu
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