Women Poets of Kerala (New Voices)

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Poetry has changed over ages and taken myriad forms from time to time. There has been a new tradition, a tradition where women speak for themselves freely. To break free from for traditional norms and culture and yet to write poetry has happened merely because the women poets no longer think from a man’s perspective. To be a woman poet in our society is to be a double bind-one of conflict and strain.

Malayalam poet is one of the most vibrant poetry among Indian language. It is an amalgamation of the traditional as well as the modern. Like women poets in other language, Malayalam too has its share of young women poets. The author’s attempt to translate young Malayalam women poets is to present before the readers the new voices, many of whom have not been rendered into English before.

Eleven poets chosen for this anthology come from diverse background. Some are employed while some are pursuing their studies. Apart from Anita Tampi, Kavitha Balakrishnan and Sahira Thangal, who are established poets, other too have already made their mark in contemporary Malayalam poetry.

Bilingual poet and multilingual translator Santosh Alex (b. 1971) was born in Tiruvalla in Kerala. He has an M.A. And PhD in Hindi Literature.

He has two poetry collections (Dooram and Njan Ninakku Oru Ghazal) in Malayalam and one poetry collection (Panv Tale Ki Mitti) in Hindi. His poems have Been widely translated into Hindi, English, Telugu, Bengali, Odiya and Nepali. They have been published in Sunrise from the Blue Thunder ( International Poetry Anthology,) Indo-Australian Anthology of Contemporary Poetry (International Poetry Anthology) Poems for the Hazara: A Multilingul Poetry Anthology, Hudson View (International Poetry Joural), Seven Sisters Post, The Enchanting Verse, Muse India, Pratilipi and Indian Ruminations. He was featured as the poet of the month by the Literary journal, Single Hound. From USA in September 2011. He is ab invited poet to Literary Festivals and Sahitya Academy Poets’ Meet. He is the feature editor of international e-jouranl Asian Signature published from Kolkata. Dr. Santosh translates postcolonial literature in English, Hindi and Malayalam and is enriching Indian literature by means of translation. He has published eight books in Hindi and one in English translation. He is the recipient of Dwivageesh Puraskaar (National Tranlation Award) by Bhartiya Anuvad Parishad, New Delhi. His bio-note has been included in 2013 edition of Asian Admirable Achiever. Currently he is working as a Technical Officer in a Research Institute at Visakhapatnam.

Translation of poetry has always evoked mixed reactions. According to Allen Tate, “Translation is forever impossible and necessary.”Some are the view that poetry is untranslatable and it essentially is lost in translation. So poetry cannot and should not be translated. Had it been so, then great poets like Danate, Shakespeare, Neruda, Tagore, who have moved readers profoundly down the ages, would have remained confined to their own language communities. But fortunately some believe that poetry is translatable if done with the right spirit and with necessary inputs.

Poetry has changed over ages and taken myriad forms from time to time. There has been a new tradition, a tradition where women speak for themselves freely. To break-free from the traditional norms and culture and yet to write poetry has happened merely because the women poets no longer think from a man’s perspective. To be a woman poet in our society is to be in a double bind – one of conflict and strain.

Malayalam poetry is one of the most vibrant poetry among Indian language. It is an amalgamation of the traditional as well as modern. Like women poets in other language, Malayalam too has its share of young women poets.

My humble attempt to translate young Malayalam women poet is to present before the readers the new voices, many of whom have not been rendered into English before.

Translating women poets was not an easy task, primarily because of the cultural equivalents and linguistic barriers that many of the poems displayed. Eleven poets chosen for this anthology come from diverse backgrounds. Some are employed, and some are pursuing their studies. In spite of this, for them poetry is a means of expressing themselves. Apart from Anitha, Kavitha Balakrishnan and Sahira Thangal, who are established poets, other too have already made their work felt in contemporary Malayalam poetry.

I sincerely don’t want explain about the poetics of these poets as I firmly believe that the poems would speak for themselves. Collecting these poems would enable the readers to have an idea of young women poets at one place.

I am grateful to Authorspress, New Delhi, for publishing this anthology. Hope the readers would enjoy readers the poems as much as I did during translation.