Jerry Pinto, a prolific writer who has written novels, biographies, memoirs, poems, journalistic publications and translations, now presents his latest translation, Behold! The Word Is God: Hymns of Tukaram.
In this book, he has translated 51 Marathi hymns into English, along with writer and translator Shanta Gokhale. The book was recently released at the 12th edition of the Goa Arts and Literature Festival (GALF), held at ICG, Dona Paula.
TWO TRANSLATIONS, ONE BOOK
Tukaram is a 17th century saint-poet from Maharashtra, who belonged to the era of the Bhakti movement, and spoke about Lord Pandurang of Pandharpur in his poetry.
Bhakti poetry consists of spiritual, devotional songs. Here, the poet has an intimate and informal relationship with God. And thus, it revolves around love, longing, rage – among various other emotions – towards their deity.
‘Behold! The Word Is God: Hymns of Tukaram’ has simultaneous translations by Pinto and Gokhale. When Pinto thought of working on this book, he wanted to work together, but Gokhale thought otherwise.
Even Pinto’s publisher, Ravi Singh bought this idea of two translators in one book.
“It worked very well. It gave us the liberty to approach Tukaram in our own way. Isn’t this what Bhakti marg (road) is all about?” said an animated Pinto, who during the event, persuaded the audience to sing the abhangas with him.
Some of these abhangas, or hymns, were sung in Konkani by Shakuntala Bharne during the event.
Pinto mentioned that working on these translations was quite a journey as he was not brought up on a staple of these abhangas, like Gokhale. During his process however, he remembered the hymn Je Ka Ranjale Ganjale by Tukaram, which he learned in the eighth standard.
He also shared that he had the assisting voice of poet AK Ramanujan, who has translated various texts including Basavanna’s (a 12th century poet).
Speaking of Bhakti poets, Pinto said, “Bhakti poets had a 360 degree relationship with god. It was tactile and richly embodied. But, we have all forgotten it now. We would not be in this state today if we had remembered this is our tradition.”
He said the Bhakti marg is all about living in the moment fully. He explained by recollecting an incident when he met poets Gieve Patel and AK Ramanujan many years ago during his walk at Nariman Point, Mumbai. They were on the way to meet another poet, Nissim Ezekiel.
But, for some reasons, Pinto could not join them. He now regrets that he didn’t, or he would have been in the august company of poets.
“This, for me, is a definition of a Bhakti marg that every moment is an opportunity that is lost if you do not live it fully,” concluded Pinto.
