Verse of dilemma

Sidhu Damdami

The recently released English translation of Kamandal — Sahitya Akademi Award-winning collection of Punjabi poems of Jaswant Deed — provides the much-desired impetus to the efforts to bring new Punjabi poetry closer to the large English readership in the country and beyond.

No doubt, medieval Punjabi poetry, including Gurbani and Sufi poetry, has been rendered in English in a big way, but most of the modern and post-modern Punjabi poetry is yet to attract the attention of professional English translators.

The Akademi’s rulebook says that every book awarded by it is to be rendered in all modern Indian languages, including English, but its implementation is tardy and selective. That’s why, in some cases, an Akademi translation takes more than a decade to appear after the award ceremony, as it happened in this case. Avidly translated by Madhumeet, Kamandal — one of Deed’s five poetry books — had brought the award to him in 2007.

Among the select band of post-modernist Punjabi poets, Deed is distinctive with his observation and oven-fresh imagery. He is neither a crusader nor a proselytizer of any specific ideology, but a creative analyst of contemporary reality with all its dilemmas and contradictions. “In the collection, my love, my relationships, my ancestors, inherited values, middle-class family life, and me... all are lying intertwined,” he says.

Interestingly with his arrogant, tense and straight persona, his poetry resonates of an attitude, which sharply separates it from the poetry of his contemporaries. In fact, a critical study of Deed’s poetry brings out that this attitude is the DNA of his poetry. His autobiographical note in the book reads: “While in the act of writing poetry, storms blow within me and winds shriek. The swish of naked sword strikes the air. And within the swish blooms the power of creation. A sort of madness takes me over, which puts off my family, friends and acquaintances. This temper transports me to the dark corners of poetry.” Basement Poems, his recent anthology of poems, can be cited to understand this phenomenon of his creativity. These poems are a fluid expression of darkness, loneliness and wild yearnings for the native land of a Punjabi immigrant, stranded in a basement of a snow-locked house in Toronto, Canada.

Kamandal’s poems draw heavily on local myths, customs and beliefs, but by treating them with his creative juices, he lends them fresh meanings. For instance, contrary to the general concept of romance, his poetry depicts love, which is dark, lonely, edgy, bitter, unreliable, avenging, killing and punctuated by cold reality. Apart from Kamandal, his recent collection of love poems titled Tere Rang Nachave brings out this peculiarity of his poetry.

Deed is not a coterie poet, but one with life in all its fullness. He depicts the contemporary life, particularly in Punjab, with a rare felicity.

Even if some readers find it ‘hot and sour’, Kamandal makes for a fulfilling experience.