By Abid Ahmad
October 6,
2020
The Mystic and the Lyric; Four Women Poets from
Kashmir
Introduced and translated by Neerja Mattoo
Zubaan Publishers, New Delhi
First Published: 2019
Price: Rs. 450
Kashmir’s
women poets have suffered a strange fate. They have been celebrated, loved,
respected, questioned, disputed, ignored, and distorted, all at once. The
Kashmiri language in its contemporary shape owes its existence to a forsaken
woman who remained a nobody for centuries. Subsequently, it were mostly the
women poets in whom we found expression and through whom we spoke to ourselves.
Though we have not had many women poets in our history but their role in making
us who we are is more than immense. But there have been concerted efforts to
send them off to oblivion on flimsy grounds.
The Mystic
and the Lyric; Four Women Poets from Kashmir by Prof Neerja Mattoo is a fresh
attempt at reclaiming the ever-vibrant legacy of the four most eminent women
poets in Kashmir’s history – Lal Ded, Habba Khatoon, Rupa Bhawani and Arnimal.
The book is beautifully designed and printed, dotted with the depiction of the
Chinar leaf on every page. It is probably the first book of its kind on
Kashmiri literature which is aesthetically satisfying too.
Lal Ded has
been lucky in the sense that the translation of her vaakhs has been attempted
several times before by orientalists and scholars like Sir Richard Temple, Pt
Anand Koul Bamzai, and lately by Prof Shafi Shouq, Ranjit Hoskote, Jaishree
Kak, among others. Passages from Habba Khatoon have been translated by scholars
like Tariq Ali, et al. However, Prof G R Malik’s translation of Habba Khatoon,
published by J&K Academy of Art, Culture & Languages, is the first
translation of her whole poetic oeuvre with a comprehensive introduction to her
person and poetry. Mattoo’s is the first attempt of neatly arranging,
translating and threading together the four iconic women poets of Kashmir in a
poetic mosaic for a wider readership in a global language.
The Mystic
and the Lyric can be looked at from multiple angles. It is an attempt at
translating the verses of women poets of Kashmir as well as an introduction to
these poets. The translator has dedicated the book “To all the women of Kashmir
who never lost their voice.” The dedication could be read either way – all
women of Kashmir have always found their voice or that the book is dedicated to
only those women of Kashmir who have always found their voice. With all
humility to the translator, both the meanings are assumptions. The Kashmiri
woman’s voice is as much suppressed as that of women elsewhere.
There are
four separate sections on the four poets, each having an independent
introduction, besides the ‘General Introduction’ in the beginning.
As far as
the translation goes, it is indisputably artistic. The whole book is a work of
terse beauty, succinct cadence, and lilting inflection. Each word and
expression has been diligently attended to and translated. Cultural expressions
and sensitivities have been taken care of well with precision and detail. The
translation reads like Kashmiri culture in transition from the indigenous to
the global. The most touching part is that the translator, as her forte is, has
preferred light words with musical patterns without compromising on
authenticity. A few lines may illustrate the point:
Slander
dogged me every step. (40)
Suffered
storms of sorrow, I stayed with God. (42)
O, how my
heart longs to go home. (42)
I asked in
vain, exhausted, sunk
Till out of
nothing, something came. (44)
Gently I
will weep, my soul. (44)
What had
you sown to expect a bounteous harvest? (47)
Within
myself, I found myself. (50)
Who can
hold the wind in his fist? (50)
Repute and
renown are water in a basket. (60)
He was
everything, nothing I. (61)
Think deep and
see the self in yourself.
The grass
appears greener seen from far.
Each line
above from the section on Lal Ded makes one feel like reading Lal Ded for the
first time. They read like timeless wisdom, similarly expressed in different
cultures. The translator could have easily succumbed to the pull of fitting in
the already available maxims in English. However, she has taken the trouble to
even unsettle the established proverbs in English and rewrite them so that the
originality of Lal remains intact. Doing this with such conscientiousness makes
it clear that it is not a simple attempt at translation but is driven by a
poetic passion coupled with a personal commitment to Lal’s vision and message.
The section
on Habba Khatoon is equally pulsating with poetic zeal and linguistic precision
along with the cultural nuances. Here are some lines which make even suffering
look beautiful:
Who can
change what is written in fate. (113)
When the
beloved himself cuts the ties
How can
poor love survive? (119)
How could I
fight against my fate? (121)
When God
withholds, there is no luck. (123)
In the heat
of the summer, I melt like ice. (126)
Sick and
wasted, I trail your steps
Winter
winds blow away my leaves
Your
deafness make me a songless bird. (126)
Don’t laugh
my friend, who suffers like me?
I am cut
into pieces, my love. (131)
The smooth
flow in the translation at times sways the translator through some glaring
flaws. Kretch (chicory leaves) has been translated simply as ‘herbs’ (p 99).
Voge (attic) has been translated as ‘skylight’ (02). Nashe kiah rotnamay
(showing attitude/throwing tantrums) has been translated as ‘he left me nothing
but regret.’ (102) Mot leagith kot aam (how he came like a
god-possessed/mentally deranged) has been translated as ‘why did he come like a
man so mad.’ No doubt ‘mot’ in Kashmiri is a highly problematic word whose
meaning could be decided by the context only. In the same vein, ‘sonn’ (rival
wife of a husband with more than one wife) is a word which cannot easily be
translated into English in a satisfactory way. Mattoo has translated it as
‘rival’ which to some extent conveys the psychological insinuations of the
word. Such an exciting line as Chhav mean daanay posh has been regrettably
translated as ‘O come, revel in the blooms’ which shears the original of its
passion.
Similarly,
Taab ishqun krooth pyom (‘But the weight of love is too much to bear.’ 117)
could better be ‘the pain of love’.
The two
sections on Rupa Bhawani and Arnimal are relatively smaller, probably carrying
representative verses by these two poets. However, in the text there is no
mention of this. Both the poets in varying degrees are deeply entrenched in the
classical Sanskrit tradition, which in turn profoundly informs their diction,
idiom, and expressions. Mattoo has done a great service to the duo by making
them readable and comprehensible through translation.
‘Introductions’
While the
‘Introductions’ preceding each poet develop perspectives of sorts, the common
‘Introduction’ in the beginning is dotted with some ahistorical assertions,
like identifying Islam as a faith with certain Muslims rulers and monarchs.
Wading through the troubled waters of history is always pr Rajatarangani
oblematic and the historical statements in this book are no exception.
There are
strong historical and literary evidences suggesting that Islam had made inroads
into Kashmir far earlier than initially imagined. In fact, sporadic references
in Rajatarangani are said to suggest the existence of Muslim habitations in
Kashmir, though in a rundown manner, even as early as Rajatarangani itself.
Another link is Fatahullah Kashmiri’s copy of the Quran, indicating to the
existence of Muslims in Kashmir earlier than the formal arrival of Islam in
Kashmir as commonly believed. Further, it was a local Buddhist ruler Rinchen
Shah who converted to Islam for personal reasons than for any historical
exigency which is believed to have paved the way for Kashmir’s smooth
transition to Islam.
At several
occasions, Mattoo seems to treat Sufism as something beyond Islam. Sufism is
essentially informed with Islamic teachings and preaches the same. Sufis have
been the proselytising missionaries of Islam shorn of all connections with
kings and monarchs who, according to them, had proved a great hurdle to the
message of Islam. Sufism was a methodology – not a separate message –adopted
for the preaching of Islam and to practice its humanitarian aspect which had
been eclipsed through overemphasis on ritualistic aspects by its literalist
followers. Sufism was adopted by the sincere followers of Islam after Islam was
misappropriated by Muslim rulers and kings for their own petty ends.
Drawing a
line between Islam and Sufism and at the same time describing a verse from the
Quran, the basic source of Islam, as a Sufi quote (Verily we are for God and
verily unto Him we are returning, page 8) foregrounds the contradiction in the
premise. While discussing ‘Interface’ between the Sufis and the Kashmiris, the
translator remarks that the “Sufis were Muslims who believed in the equality of
all human beings” (page 9). Historically, it is Islam’s egalitarian outlook in
general, and not that of Sufis exclusively, that has proved to be its most
revolutionary part.
While
discussing the Reshi order of Sufism (page 10), the author notes that “emphasis
on non-violence and following the path of moderation is … suggestive of their
Buddhist past”, implying thereby to its possibility of being immoderate and
violent otherwise.
Referring
to Lal Ded (page 12), the translator says, “To the old Hindu faith, she is a
symbol of resistance to the new Islam, while to the new one, that of conquest
of the old.” However, the fact remains that the beauty and the universality of
Lal Ded is that she cannot be reduced to any ideological or religious frame.
She defies all such attempts. She is a peaceful fusion of the two, giving birth
to an aesthetic and cultural idiom that still makes us feel proud to be what we
are. Applying the binary of ‘resistance’ and ‘conquest’ on her cosmic spirit
sounds reductionist, to say the least.
While some
issues mentioned in the ‘Introduction’ to Lal Ded are problematic, the
questions raised in the ‘Introduction’ to Habba Khatoon are highly relevant and
academically important. “Though she lived in a historically important time in
Kashmir, in her verses we find no reference to events like the removal of the
last Kashmiri king, Yusuf Shah Chak, and the annexation by the Mughal king
Akbar – she is too wrapped up in her own affairs of the heart.” (86-87)
About Rupa
Bhawani, the translator says that her “language … is a mixture of old Kashmiri,
Sanskrit and Persian, mak(ing) the task more difficult. (144) “The vaakhs
reveal a personality well-versed in the Vedas, the Upanishads, Vedanta and the
most advanced Saiva philosophical thought.” (145) She further adds that “her
poetry needs an intellectual response as much as an emotional one. . . . It is
necessary to draw her out of the confines of sainthood in order to realize that
she was not only a mystic, but a talented poet, an extraordinary woman of
courage, whose real place in the history of Kashmiri literature and thought
needs to be better researched and understood.”(152-153)
About
Arnimal, the translator says that she suffered the fate of a forsaken wife
(203) but remained a “poet of great romantic sensibility … concerned with here
and now.” (204). She says that Arnimal “revolted through her act of speaking
out about the subject of domestic violence” (205), describing her verses as
“the wail of a victim of patriarchy in its various forms, in which there is no
compassion, only mockery for a woman discarded by her husband.” (207) “While
her husband, Bhawani Das Kachru, might have won some laurels at Kabul for his
Farsi scholarship and poetic skill, his name in Kashmir is forever smeared by
one woman’s softly-worded but powerful arraignment. (208)
Over-all,
the book remains what it is –a signal feat of translating the poetic oeuvres of
four defining women poets of Kashmir who remain relevant for a number of
reasons in this age when literature is revisited to foreground the silent gaps,
overwhelmingly imposed upon women. What could be a better favour to these women
poets than this that a woman has finally translated them? Who can understand a
woman better than a woman herself?
Original Headline: The feminine and the divine:
an insight
Source: The Kashmir Reader
URL: https://newageislam.com/books-documents/legacy-most-eminent-women-poets/d/123052
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