Translations.

Of late I have taken to translating Tamil poems into English.

My toughest customer was Bharathiyar.A translator either tends or has to get into the mind set of the original author . And I found Bharathiyar's turbulence of emotions and his anger very difficult to negotiate.

I think a woman can never experience such turmoils and churning's and scale such high emotional peaks . And this was no ordinary man! At least I couldn't and extricated myself by putting a full stop to it.

Aazhwars hymns in comparison are easier to translate.Their pleasing poetry and simple but deep devotion ,is very refreshing.

I am again encountering a problem ,that of deficit of intellect whilst translating Desikan's slokas or hymns.His intellect ,creativity and optimistic faith is so high that it leaves me flabbergasted.I have been scared stiff of his poetic skills . I daren't venture further and translate his other scholarly works,like philosophy and so on.

My translations are few , just scratched the surface. The energy I encountered flattened me to the ground.I can't even begin to imagine the magnitude of the energy that prompted these great poets to spin forth inspirational poems in hundreds and thousands, seemingly effortlessly!