Q. The story of your having picked up Charles Johnston’s translation of Eugene Onegin is often cited as a seminal moment in your writing life. Have there been other such turning points?
A. There have been several such moments; I’ll mention just one. In my second year at university, where I was supposed to be studying Philosophy, Politics and Economics, I went to the Oriental Institute, thinking I’d slip unnoticed into a Japanese class. I went to the wrong floor, and ended up in a Chinese class. I was thrown out as an interloper a week or two later, but it gave me a taste for the language. At about the same time, a friend happened to lend me the Penguin Classics translation of the poems of Wang Wei, an 8th century Chinese poet. He wrote of nature, friendship and solitude in a way I had never come across before. These poems moved me deeply and I decided then and there to learn enough classical Chinese to read them in the original. And in fact, many years later, in the year after the Tiananmen massacre, mulling over the troubled times of famine and civil war that Wang Wei himself had lived through, I translated his poems for myself.
Q. Have your experiments with poems written in monosyllabic words been informed by your translation of Chinese poetry?
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der October 18, 2021-Ausgabe von India Today.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der October 18, 2021-Ausgabe von India Today.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
Falling Back On Ram
It’s not new from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), led by ‘Ram bhakt’ Arvind Kejriwal, but worth noting because god is in the details. It was Ram Navami on April 17.
Congress 'EQ' Vs BJP ‘IQ'
Team Modi Is Riding On Its Assembly Poll Momentum, But The Congress's Clever Candidate Mix May Prevent A Washout
The Macallan M 2023 debuts in India
Standing as a pinnacle of exclusivity, The Macallan M 2023 graces the shores of India with limited 10 handpicked bottles for whisky aficionados
Give it up for the science bros
They've got brains, brawn and billions in the bank. A new breed of wellness guru is doing for men what Gwyneth Paltrow did for women.
LIVING BY THE RULES
Chetan Bhagat returns to non-fiction with his new book-11 Rules for Life
The Mysterious City
Anuradha Kumar's The Kidnapping of Mark Twain paints an intriguing portrait of Bombay around the time of the American writer's visit
GOWDA KNOWS
Hot Stage, the third book in Anita Nair's Inspector Gowda mystery series, is here
WITH OUR OWN DESI SLEUTHS
Indian detective fiction gets its due in this massive, two-volume compilation from Hachette
PRIVATE PARADISE
Your home may well be your haven, but here are easy ways to make it your very own spa-dom.
Subversive IN SUBURBIA
A MONTH-LONG SHOW AT ART AND CHARLIE, MUMBAI, SHOWCASING THE WORKS OF POONAM JAIN AND YOGESH BARVE POSES SEVERAL QUESTIONS TO THE VIEWER