Reviews

Autobiography of Sir C. Sankaran Nair: Published by Lady Madhavan Nair, ‘Lynwood’ 52, Kodambakkam High Road, Madras-34. Pages 463+XIV. Price Rs. 17-50.

Subhas Chandra Bose, Correspondence 1924-32: Compiled and edited by Sisir K. Bose. Netaji Research Bureau, Calcutta. Distributors: Oxford Book and Stationery Co., 17, Park Street, Calcutta-16; Scindia House, New Delhi-1. Pages 432. Price Rs. 17-50.

At first sight, there might appear to be little in common, between the old stalwart who served the British Government in high office and the fiery apostle of freedom who fought it all his life. Sir C. Sankaran Nair and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose belonged to two different generations, separated by nearly four decades. But a glance at their political careers would be enough to show that they were valiant fighters both and the temperament of the rebel had a way of showing up in their lives from time to time.

From his outspoken autobiography we learn that Sankaran Nair had to fight against heavy odds at every step. This was true of his struggle to succeed as a lawyer in Madras, to win recognition as Advocate-General and High Court Judge and carry his point through as a member of the Viceroy’s Executive Council and later still in crossing swords with the high and mighty of the day including Mahatma Gandhi. Whether it be the cause of social reform, university education or political autonomy, he respected no persons and was ready to fight for his convictions. E. S. Montague, the most friendly of Secretaries of States for India, bears testimony, in his famous Indian diary, to the fact that Sankaran Nair was an intrepid fighter who could be an implacable opponent as well as a reliable friend. He played a vital role in seeing that the substance of Montford Reforms were not whittled down further than they actually were. His famous clashes with Gandhi, O’Dwyer and Chirol would establish his memory in our minds as one who cared less for money, popularity or material position than self-respect and ethical dignity. The autobiography is quite uninhibited and is sure to prove useful to the students of India’s political evolution in this century and the last.

The letters of Subhas Bose written in the years 1924-32 reveal different aspects of his personality–the true friend and affectionate family man as well as the patriot and rebel. The bulk of them were written to his elder brother Sarat Bose. The scholar and artist of delicate sensibility can also be seen in the letters to his intimate friend and college-mate Dilip Kumar Roy. The Netaji Research Bureau, under the expert guidance of Dr. Sisir K. Bose, had done well to bring these letters to light, with useful notes wherever necessary.
–D. ANJANEYULU

The Lamp and the Lampstand: By K. P. S. Menon. Oxford University Press. Pages 343. Price Ten Rupees.

American Life Through Indian Eyes: By Dr. K. M. George. Janatha. Printing and Publishing Co., 66, Bells Road, Madras-5. Pages 227. Price Six Rupees.

Far Beyond the Seas: By Anant Gopal Sheorey. Nagpur Times Press, 37, Farmland, Ramdaspeth, Nagpur. Pages 171. Price: Ten Rupees.

In one of his letters from Russia, Rabindranath Tagore mentions the awakening of the masses of that country in the years after the great revolution of 1917. He says….“They are deprived of everything that makes life worth living. They are like a lampstand bearing the lamp of civilisation on their heads: people above receive light while they are smeared with the tickling oil.”

On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the same revolution, Mr. K. P. S. Menon, who spent nearly nine years as India’s ambassador to the Soviet Union, has brought out a new book, with a suggestive title that makes good use of the poet’s words. This sizable paperis not entirely a new book, as it brings together two of his earlier books–Russian Panorama a delightful travel-book, and The Flying Troika, a shrewdly observant political diary maintained by the author during his stay in Moscow. The English-reading world has by now learnt to recognise in the seasoned diplomat a writer of quiet charm and easy spontaneity. Even the severest of critics cannot deny him the title of a natural writer of the English language in this country. The delightful ranconteur scarcely hides the shrewd judge of men and affairs. The present volume bids fair to prove even more popular than its predecessors, for its price and content.

The academic assignment which had taken Dr. K. M. George to the United States of America in 1964 has enabled him to learn much about American life as well as teach Dravidian Linguistics at Chicago University. Family organisation and hospitality traditions, besides student behaviour and academic methods, attract his attention. The time he spent with the friendly Quakers at Pendle Hill and the Peace Corps volunteers elsewhere gives him an insight into the American mind which he not only Sees through Indian eyes but shares with Indian readers.

A brief visit to West Germany and the United Kingdom provides the veteran journalistand author, Mr. Sheorey (Editor of the Nagpur Times) with a few off-beat encounters. He finds German interest in India in all places he had visited, like Born Munich and Frankfurt and compares notes with localwriters. The sentimental journey to the county Churchyard (at Stokes Poges) associated with Gray’s Elegy is described with tender feeling. The author winds up his European itinerary with an audience with the Pope at his summer residence, some miles from Rome.
–“HANUMAN”

Kanchanamala: By Veluri Chandrasekharam. Translated from Telugu by “Amarendra”. Published by Radha Publications, 4th Line, 19th  Cross, Brodipet, Guntur. Price Rs. 4

The story of Kunala and Kanchanamala is a very popular historic play of the past. The infatuation of Tishyaraksha, the youngest of Asoka’s queens for her step-son. Kunala, and how it stands in the way of his true love for Kanchanamala, forms the framework of the play. The Buddhist atmosphere and the influence of Asoka, the famous hero of the war of Kalinga, pervade throughout the play. The conflict in Tishyaraksha’s mind strikes a sharp Contrast with the sublime love of Kanchanamala. The drama is a fine study of the working of the human heart, as well as a treatise on love and passion.

Amarendra has done well to translate the playwhich has all the tension and unity of a Greek tragedy into acceptable English. If it is not always as conversational as one would wish it to be, the reason lies more inthe theme and original language than in the work of the translator who has rendered a distinct service to Indian readers interested in the literatures of linguistic regions other than their own,
–V. V. TONPE

Values of Shavian Drama and Their Validity: By Sarvepalli Rama Rao. Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati. Pages 168. Price not mentioned.

In this excellent monograph on Shavian drama, originally submitted to Nagpur University as a thesis for the Ph. D. degree, the author makes a thorough and systematic study of all the plays and discusses their artistic appeal as well as their philosophic content. The plays are classified in a sensible way under intelligible heads (like, for example, economic, social, political, historical and religious plays) and their message and technique lucidly analysed. The author is balanced in his judgment and fair in his comment. While he pinpoints the fact that Shaw had sought effectively to use his plays as an instrument of social change, he does not dismiss him as merely an intellectual propagandist. Most of them are discussion- plays but the aesthetic values that lie beneath the surface are skilfully related to the critical and cognitive values. We know that though many of the themes had dated long ago, the plays had survived and continue to sustain interest. The theory of positive and negative characters is well formulated by the author, in his well-documented thesis. If the prefaces are not touched upon, as any of Shaw’s readers might expect, it may be remembered that the concentration here is on the plays proper.

An Outline of World Civilisation: By Dev Raj Dutt. Arya Book Depot, Karol Bagh, New Delhi–5. Pages 282. Price: Eight Rupees.

It was Nehru’s Glimpses of World History (and possibly also H. G. Wells’s Outline of World History) more than any other single book that had stimulated the interest of the Indian student of recent decades in subjects wider than the history of India and of England. In the curricula of schools and colleges after freedom in this country, there is every reason to hope that the interest is being kept up, even if it be not broadened. The hand-book under notice is designed as a text-book but its general framework and perspective would have gladdened the heart of Nehru. The story of mankind is traced from the paleolithic and neolithic ages to the machine age of the present. The reformation and the renaissance in Europe and the various revolutions like the American, French and Russian are briefly discussed but in significant detail. The account is brought up to the League of Nations. It could be hoped that it would be revised to include the Nuclear Age and the United Nations in a later edition. Written for the syllabus of the Central Board of Secondary Education, it may prove useful to the pupils of colleges, as well as those in higher secondary schools, not to speak of the general reader.
–CHITRAGUPTA

Otakkuzhal and other poems: By G. Sankara Kurup. English rendering by Dr. V. V. Menon. 40 High Road, Egmore, Madras-8. Price: Rs. 10.

A Golden Treasury of Persian Poetry: By Hadi Hasan. Published by the Director, Publications Division, Delhi-6. Pages 228. Price: Rs. 4.

Whether poetry can and should be translated from one language into another is one of those never-ending questions that cannot be satisfactorily answered. That the best and purest poetry is indeed untranslatable is commonly taken for granted. Nor is the statement seriously disputed by the sensitive reader or the seasoned critic. But it would be less than fair to use this plea as an alibi against making a poet of distinction in one language available to the readers in the other languages through a common medium (like English, Hindi, French, German or any other language for that matter) or as a hurdle to the just assessment of the worth of a poet by national or international standards.

Both of these operations involve a difficult job, but not an impossible one. If it were altogether impossible, the institution of the Nobel Prize for Literature should have been treated as a ridiculous absurdity. Not less of an irrelevance would be the Bharatiya Jnana Peeth award for creative writing in any of the Indian languages. On the other hand, it was welcomed in all quarters as an overdue recognition of the worth of Indian literature. The choice of the winner was notonly a ticklish but a thorny question, especially that of the first in the series. But the labours of the panel of judges were justified by the result, which was greeted with enthusiasm by the spokesmen of all the languages functioning in India. Mahakavi G. Sankara Kurup was hailed with a spontaneity of jubilation, only second to that which burst its bounds at the success of poet Tagore over half-a-century ago.

Sankara Kurup’s similarity with Tagore is not restricted to the winning of a coveted prize. Both are poets and pure poets at that. Both are romantics to an extent. Both are mystics, after a fashion and both are humanists first and last.Without ceasing to be patriots in the broadest sense, averse from the exploitation of the parochial sensibilities. That the older poet was also the subtler and more varied in his interests will not be denied by the most ardent lovers of Malayalam poetry. That Tagore had been the main inspiration for and a dominant influence on Kurup is noted by critics and admitted by the Mahakavi himself, who has kept his windows open to Persian airs as well as to the strong winds of Sanskrit and English.

It was indeed a happy thought of Dr. V. V. Menon to have rendered the choice pieces from Otakkuzhai and other poems (which was the book chosen for the award) in acceptable English for the benefit of those who cannot read them in the original. The attempt to translate such poetry is, of course, part of man’s impossible quest for perfection. It is worth trying for the same reason, as the one implied in the paradox that the only battles worth fighting are those that are lost before the start, in the words of a poet.

Something of the poet’s mystic ecstasy and joyous abounden are captured in the following lines from The Sunflower:

Love’s reward is not but love
Even as wisdom’s, wisdom.
Joy is nothing but love
And grief,
Nothing but a break in love.
May love remain supreme,
Transcending time and space!
May my entire being
Burn in it, if it must!
What care I?
Now that my soul !
Has kissed its magic light.

The cryptic words on the poor man’s coffin that catch the poet’s eye set in motion a train of thought that chimes in with our own philosophy on the transitoriness of human life:

A line shat
Glittered in the coffin
Struck my eyes:
Today me, tomorrow you.”
It sent a shudder through me,
In the twinkling of the stars
That shudder is seen
Even now.

The lines from the title piece are instinct with the sense of fulfilment in self-surrender:

Silenced tomorrow
This reed may fall
Into Time’s rubbish-heep
And turn into worthless dust
Some might lament
Others rejoice–
Unconcerned shall I
Remain for ever
Dedicated into your hands
In supreme bliss.

It is just possible that some readers might feel that the words were more apt or the idioms were more elegant in some lines. But all lovers of poetry, in original or translation, are sure to welcome Dr. Menon’s sincere effort and ask for more to rejoice in the song of G. Sankara Kurup.

Anyone who has had a glimpse of Omar Khayyam through the magic mirror of Fitzgerald is likely to thrill to a vision of the riches of Persian poetry. Small wonder then that a scholar like Dr. Hadi Hasan should be drawn away from a study of botany to a passion for poetry that was to fill the best part of his life. The treasures collected here in his book are from a thousand years of poetry that has strokes of wit as well as flights of conceit, that plumbs the depths of philosophy as well as reaches the heights of fancy and imagination. The anthology presents a good cross-section from Firdausi to Dara Shukuh and Rumi to Iqbal. It is a rewarding book for a nominal price. The lines from Iqbal make us think on life and death from a new angle:

Dost thou remember how at the time of thy birth,
thou art weeping but all others were laughing?
Live then in such fashion that at the time of thy death
thou shouldst be laughing and all else should be weeping.

Dhammapada: Translated from the Pali by P. Lal. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 19, Union Square-West, New York 10003. Pages 184. Price: $ 4-50. Distributors in India: Writers Workshop, Calcutta–45.

One of the serious problems faced by any translator of the classics, from whatever language, is to keep the version intelligible in modern idiom, without having to stray away from the spirit of the original. This must have been particularly obvious in rendering the Dhammapada, a Pali classic in 26 poems or chapters, with a total of 423 verses, attributed to the Buddha himself.

“The ocean has only one taste, the taste of salt. Dhamma has only one taste, the taste of Nirvana.”

“I do not quarrel with the world, monks; it is the world that quarrels with me….”

These two lines will do by way of a random sampling of a translation that has all the virtues of simplicity and fidelity, of the elegance of the spoken idiom and the quality of poetry. It is also suffused with a charming naivity that is inseparable from the teachings of The Enlightened One. P. Lal, who combines in himself the inspiration of the genuine poet and the unobtrusive scholarship of the good translator, succeeds here in making the faithful also beautiful. He has an enviable mastery of the telling monosyllable and the living phrase of contemporary speech, freed from the shackles of an outmoded poetic diction. Translation in his hands rises at times to the level of trans-creation, as in:

“Who, is a Brahmin?
He is a Brahmin
who does not cling to pleasures,
like a drop of water on a lotus leaf,
like a reed of mustard on the tip of an owl.”
–D. ANJANEYULU