ಒಂದು ಕವಿತೆ, ಎರಡು ಅನುವಾದಗಳು

ನಾನು ಬರೆದ -ಹೌದು, ನಿಮ್ಮ ಅನುಮಾನ ಸರಿ!- ಕವಿತೆಯನ್ನು ಇಷ್ಟಪಟ್ಟ ಎರಡು ಮನಸುಗಳು ಅದನ್ನು ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಷಿಗೆ ಅನುವಾದ ಮಾಡಿವೆ. -ಹೌದು, ನಿಮ್ಮ ಅನುಮಾನ ಸರಿ!-ಲಂಕೆಶಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಕಟವಾದಾಗ ತುಂಬಾ ಮೆಚ್ಚಿ ಅಸ್ಪತ್ರೆಯಲ್ಲಿರುವಾಗಲೇ ಅದನ್ನು ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಷಿಗೆ ಅನುವಾದ ಮಾಡಿದವರು ಹಿರಿಯ ಮಾನವ ಹಕ್ಕು ಹೋರಾಟಗಾರ ನಗರಿ ಬಾಬಯ್ಯ. ಹಾಗೆಯೇ ಬ್ಲಾಗಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಆ ಕವಿತೆಯನ್ನು ಓದಿ ಮೆಚ್ಚಿ ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಷಿಗೆ ಮಾಡಿದವರು ಲೇಖಕ ಕಮಲಾಕರ ಕಡವೆ. ಈ ಎರಡು ಅನುವಾದಗಳನ್ನು ನಿಮ್ಮ ಮುಂದೆ ಇಟ್ಟಿದ್ದೇನೆ.

You are rigt! Your doubt is also right

Danger awaits those who do namaz
they make a show of it and back out
feeding the poor and meeting their needs
(Quran, Chapter Al maun)


Those hurrying towards mosque for namaz
Wave out me to join them
Lacking courage to go to face before god
I hide my face in shame

The sight of a famished child troubles the
very depth of my eye with its eagle like hurt
Alas! Had just then my fill
The morel eaten with no thought for the child
Has polluted every drop of my blood
I hang my head in shame

Is there enough water to cleans this blemish
In the tank of mosque?
Do have the strength to go forward
Breaking the sound, the wordy images,
Begging their share before the one and only god

Oh god! The truth burns before me
Treading to break the prayer lines
To melt them in furnace
Possibly turn the cascades of fire into
Ploughing the grave yard of my heart
And break the stone inside me
Carve the way towards hope of water
Need be forge the sword against myself

yes your doubt is right, I am a jehadi
Please remember, first against myself
If I conquer, then against you

NAGARI BABAYYA

Yes to your suspicion


On the way to namaaz, they call me

With frantic wave of their hands.

I have not the mettle to face God,

I hide my head in shame.


The eyes of a starving child

Stir the depths of my sight

Oh! I just finished my meal…

I hang my head in front of her !

The bread I have eaten

In disregard of her

Has polluted the whole of my body.

Is there water enough in the masjid pool

To wash this defilement ?

I have to belt along

Breaking down the verbal idols

That demand for partitioning

In front of the Single God.

Am I up to it ?


Truth is all ablaze before me.

I will feed the furnace, oh God, with

The words of the prayers meant for you and liquefy them.

With the leaping flames will I make

Ploughs to till my desert-like heart,

Hammers (mallets) to crack the rock inside me

And craft a route for the water to spring

… If necessary, a sword will I make

And become too its very first target.


Yes, you are right…

I am a jihadi !
Aiming to conquer

Myself first and then You !

KAMALAKAR BHAT, KADAVE