Poems Come Home

By Sukrita Paul Kumar

Sukrita's poetry lives and breathes the world of everyday turmoil: the homeless shivering in the rain; the guard at the Viceregal Lodge recounting his strange fascination for the cold, blue eyes of his former masters; the transience of memory; the fear of looking too closely, lest one's suspicions be confirmed; the loneliness of old age in a cold country ... Gulzar's translations - the 'original' that lurked somewhere in the English poems, perhaps - bring to life a parallel world of quiet elegance and intensely felt emotions. In the poet's own words, it is in these translations that 'these poems come home'.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Jun 19, 2012
• ISBN: 9789351160588

Book preview

Poems Come Home

Sukrita

Translated by

Gulzar

HarperCollins Publishers India

Contents

Cover Page

Dedication

Introduction

Parting Again

Seasonal Sadness

We the Homeless I

We the Homeless II

We the Homeless III

We the Homeless IV

We the Homeless V

Ageing in America

Voyaging at Ten

Insight

End from the Beginning

Possessed I

Possessed II

Possessed III

First Love

Unloyal Memory

Prayers

Through Space and Time

Talking Aloud

Space Contacts I

Space Contacts II

Space Contacts III

Space Contacts IV

Massey’s Tales

Just a Little One

Heights

Compromise

An Accident

Cold Storage

The Mad Woman on the Avenue of Stars

Tsunami Snapshots I

Tsunami Snapshots II

Tsunami Snapshots III

Tsunami Snapshots IV

Corpses

To You, Whoever

The Chosen One

My Lost Diary

Many a Moment

Alone

How to begin

Above the Ground

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Introduction

From the Original to the Original

It is said that poems are lost in translation. But, here they seem to have been found. When these translations of my English poems were read out to me, my immediate response was: ‘These poems have come home!’ This statement itself, we thought at once, could make the book’s title … Is this really the ‘original’ that lurked somewhere in the English poems, now acquiring a fresh breath of life in the very process of recreation? Each poem in Hindustani had found itself, its own individual body and of course