by Crazyfinger
Two discoveries this week brought me back into the folds of re-collecting. First I found out on the internet that Bhargavi P Rao had passed away a while ago. I still remember talking to her about "The Gift of Magi," the O. Henry story. Wasn't it only in 2007 that I ran into her at the airport...? What happened?
The second discovery was K. Siva Reddy, the Telugu poet for this post. I could only find this to link to online, this Introduction to the collection of translations of a few of his poems. Fascinating to read he taught English at V.V. Degree college between 1967 and 1999. So in my school days at V.V. High School, I would have run into him. More poignant, a cousin of mine who was a student at the degree college - were he alive today - would surely have recalled him.
Here is my English version of his Telugu poem "Oka Nelavanka." (One crescent moon). The scan of Telugu version from his collection, below.
Crescent Moon
Arms and legs
Thrown this way and that way
As though not hers
She sat
Like a concrete heap
Driven in way back when
On the road side
Is she in this world, don't know
As though she was swimming inwardly
As though unable to know which shore to reach
As though like an ocean parching
Somewhere beyond the sunset
Unaware of anything
Wind rustling in the hair
Drawing crazy lines on her forehead
The cheap ring on the finger
Bringing back some memory
With a gentle palm on its head
Caressing the dog that
Wagging its tail
Sat next to her
A faint smile in the corner of lips
Appearing playfully, like a
Crescent moon not quite yet
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