New Delhi: What is the most popular song sung by people around the world? You don’t expect award-winning author and poet Vikram Seth to engage in such trivial top-of-the-pops question and answer.
But Seth of The Golden Gate (1986) and A Suitable Boy (1993) fame has a way of making even a mundane question turn into a lyrical and historical quest. There are three songs.
The answer, according to him is: Happy Birthday to You, a 4-line Chinese poem on homesickness, and the Hanuman Chalisa.
It’s a great hook for a brand-new poetic translation of the Hanuman Chalisa into English by the most suitable Indian poet Vikram Seth. He calls it the most beloved hymn in the world.
“Whether you are a believer, or you are a half believer or superstitious, the Hanuman Chalisa can somehow affect you and move you,” Seth said. “I can’t think of any other poem in the world that is known, recited and loved by so many people.
Masterclass in translation
The 40-verse hymn, originally written by the medieval poet Tulsidas, has been sung and recited by so many— from MS Subbulakshmi to Anup Jalota, Arvind Kejriwal and Basavaraj Bommai. But when author Vikram Seth recited some of its verses in English at the Friday launch of the little red book The Hanuman Chalisa, a Speaking Tiger publication, at the Park Hotel in New Delhi, he also turned it into a masterclass in translation.
“Having cleansed with the dust of my teacher’s
feet the mirror of my mind and being,
I sing of Ram, from whom all things come:
truth, means, desire and freeing.
Hail Hanuman, great wisdom’s ocean—
The three worlds glow with your light
and devotion.”
It’s the second book by Seth in two years, and because it is a poet’s translation, he said it had to retain that “mesmerising and incantatory” pleasure of the original. He did this by translating it in meter and rhythm to retain the same musicality in English too.
The Hanuman Chalisa begins with two dohas (couplets) and they have a different rhythm from the chaupais (quatrains), Seth explained.
“English tends to be a rising rhythm. In the Chalisa, you find that it is the falling rhythm. The stress is on the first beat. I hope I didn’t take too many liberties with Tulsidas’ text but I thought of something of a compromise to get that feeling of the poem. Otherwise, it would translate into pure prose and you wouldn’t understand why it has such a magical hold on so many people, why it consoles them in times of distress or when they need courage.”
In the introduction, Seth mentioned one constraint. It was just not possible to recreate the wonderfully musical echoes and alliterations of the original, such as the repeated nasal vowels of the 23rd chaupai or the repeated retroflex sounds of the 36th chaupai.
Seth is passionate about the art, science and sanctity of translation.
“After all, I am myself a huge beneficiary of translation. I wouldn’t be sitting here if it hadn’t been for the translation of Pushkin’s great work, which made me write The Golden Gate,” he said. There is a statue of Pushkin in Central Delhi that he said he drove past and bowed his head to on the way to the book launch event. “You have to try to dance with the changes. Even if 10 per cent of the pleasure of the poem is retained that’s good enough.”
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A Suitable Boy paved the way
Vikram Seth wrote The Hanuman Chalisa as a private translation for Usha mami, his aunt, 10 years ago. He is not a Hanuman devotee himself but he said he understands its power and cultural resonance for tens of millions of Hindus. Everybody is handed a Hanuman Chalisa at some point – by a family member, friend or well-wisher. It is India’s “everyday poetry” said journalist Mandira Nayar who was in conversation with the author at the book launch.
But Seth’s entry point into the Hanuman Chalisa was 5-year-old Bhaskar, the protagonist from A Suitable Boy who learned to recite it at a young age in the village Ramlila.
Writing about Bhaskar meant that Seth had to read the Chalisa too. Immersive writing is a bit like method acting.
“I created Bhaskar. And Bhaskar gave it to me. I had to learn the things my characters were steeped in”, said Seth about the novel that was published three decades ago. ‘It’s been with me ever since. There’s a Muslim character in A Suitable Boy, so I had to learn Mir and Ghalib. In An Equal Music [1999], I had to understand the violin and how it’s played.”
He wrote The Hanuman Chalisa translation to acquaint and re-acquaint Indians to the hymns – to be enjoyed by those who cannot understand Hindi or Awadhi of the 16th century. The book is dedicated to Bhaskar.
“I dedicate this translation to Bhaskar, who learned the poem before he was five, but who spent his fifties fighting the chauvinism and intolerance to which this and many other well-beloved religious texts and rituals have been put.”
He didn’t offer elaborate footnotes and explanatory lines about the Ramayana characters. For that the reader can go to Tulsidas’ main text or “Googla sakte hain”, he joked, referring to Google search in Bhojpuri slang.
The hymn invokes Hanuman in his many mythical roles – warrior, protector, remover of obstacles, teacher, devotee, advisor, scribe, friend, miracle worker and god, the book says.
Seth initially wished to publish the book on Hanuman Jayanti. But he feared that it will get sucked into the election madness.
“And they will think this chap has gone over to the dark side,” Seth said. The fawning audience – women in chiffon sarees and pearls and men in starched linen kurtas – laughed awkwardly.
So he waited till after the election to release the book. The election results then became a sort of before-and-after time marker for more reasons than just the book.
“I don’t think the problem is over yet. People seem to be so afraid of speaking their minds. Look at what’s happening to Arundhati Roy. It’s craziness,” Vikram Seth said. “But I do think we are in a better situation now than we did a month ago.”
The launch ended with the other popular song. It was Seth’s 72nd birthday the night before. A cake was wheeled in. The audience stood up and sang ‘Happy Birthday to You’.
“Far in the distance, the Sun burned so brightly.
Like a sweet fruit, you just swallowed it lightly.”
(Edited by Zoya Bhatti)