(An introduction of saavitri, the writer; her brillinat kavita:
bandipOTlu, and its English translation deleted)
> My two shekels worth:
>
> shekel one:
>
> The original, in my opinion, is much more powerful
> than the translation!
>
The poem and its translation illustrate two common problems in
translating poetry:
1) Part of the power of the poem comes from the common idioms:
'peLLi cEstaa', 'moguDu', and 'maga mahaaraaju'. A literal translation of
these idioms does not exactly convey the meaning, and the translated
version (without adequate footnotes) would loose the punch of the original.
2) A second part of this poem's punch comes from the 'pun':
'paalivvaDam' vs. 'paalincaDam'. Here, the meaning can be translated, and
it still retains part of the effect, but the wordplay is lost in the
translation.
A digression: Are there equivalent English idioms for
'peLLi cEyaDam', and 'moguDu'?
Another digression: another common idiom used with a similar meaning
is 'ranku moguDu'. Is ranku mogudu worse than a simple moguDu?
Regards. --- V. Chowdary Jampala