A `Water Song' to die for, to pray for

[Guest guest]

A `Water Song' to die for, to pray for

 

Staff Reporter

 

Gopi pens the poem giving a humane touch to the plight of lakes,

rivers, oceans, waterfalls

of Indo-American Centre for International Studies Isaac

Sequeira, who released `Water Song' commended the translators. He

described the poem as an invocation to and a celebration of water and

a prayer to water in the Vedic mode.

 

FOR THAT ELIXIR OF LIFE: Isaac Sequeira, Director of American Studies

Research Centre, releasing N. Gopi's (right) poem translated into

English by M. Sridhar and Alladi Uma in Hyderabad on Tuesday. -

PHOTO: P.V. Sivakumar

 

 

HYDERABAD: "Every minute water awakening. Every hour water crop.

Every season water season. Announce water alert the world over. Lend

a helping hand. That's why this water song celestial."

 

The last few lines of Telugu poem `Jala Geetam' or `Water Song' by N.

Gopi and translated by M. Sridhar and Alladi Uma ends with a rousing

call to man to end the devastation of water and to awaken to the

great need for its conservation.

 

"Whatever I write should come from my own experience. I come from the

dry district of Nalgonda and I used to carry water from distant areas

in my village Bhongir," explained Mr. Gopi for writing the poem that

was released on Tuesday.

 

V-C hangover!

 

 

Another reason for writing, he said, was to get over his "Vice-

Chancellor hangover" though he had been writing even when he was

serving as V-C of Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University. The poem was

rich with humane and environmental references to the plight of

rivers, oceans, waterfalls and lakes everywhere. A line about the

pollution of the Hussainsagar describes the fate of the lake —

"Buddha's smiles have blackened in the Hussainsagar!"

 

References to the pollution of Dal lake, the Yamuna, the Ganga and

the Brahmaputra were also made. The tenor is sometimes pleading and

at other times, threatening in tenor. "For civilisation that runs

faster than water, beware, there are hidden dangers," it says.

 

Not losing flavour

 

 

Ms. Uma said that they did their best to retain the original flavour

of the poem while Mr. Sridhar confessed to the difficulties in

translating certain images from Telugu. Commenting on the lack of

tradition of writing long poems in English, Ms. Uma said: "That we

don't write such long poems in English should be reason for

translating more such poems from other languages."

of Indo-American Centre for International Studies Isaac

Sequeira, who released `Water Song' commended the translators. He

described the poem as an invocation to and a celebration of water and

a prayer to water in the Vedic mode.

 

 

The book release and the poetry reading was organised by the Poetry

Society.

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