Mahakavi Viswanadha Satyanarayana

One Original and Three Translations
MAHAKAVI VISWANADHA SATYANARAYANAtc "MAHAKAVI VISWANADHA SATYANARAYANA"
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We publish below the original poem by Jnanapeetha awardee, Mahakavi Viswanadha Satyanarayana’s RATHAM (Telugu) and translations by three eminent writers of the same piece, which, we hope will be interesting. - Editor

The Chariot
tc "The Chariot "
(Translated from Telugu by Adivi Bapiraju
(From ‘Triveni’ 1928)

Proudly bent on its course
And cruel in its speed
The car was whirling on
My frail form was crushed into death
Beneath the chariot wheels.
And streams of blood gushed forth.

The car divinely bright stopped not a moment
In hesitation that aught impeded its progress;
Nor did it veer round to note the sudden wail
That went up from my bruised heart.

At early dawn, dread lord, they charioteer
Will wash the blood stains, from off they chariot wheels,
But, how from amongst the blood stains of millions
Will Thou spot out mine?

(Reprinted in the Platinum Jubilee Special issue of ‘Triveni’ – January, 2003)

Your Chariottc "Your Chariot"
(Translated by B.V.L. Narayana Rao)

The hourses of your chariot
are galloping
at a steady
bewildering speed.
Swept up
and crushed
under the wheels
I lost
All my blood
Absorbed was the jolt
muffled the cry
by your
shining
glorious
chariot
Tomorrow
your charioteer
will clean the wheels
of my blood
Of all the blood smears there
how can one tell
which is
mine?

Your Chariottc "Your Chariot"
(Translated by Velcheru Narayana Rao,
Oxford University Press)

Lord, your chariot sped along
given to reckless speed, and my body
was crushed under it-blood gushed
out in rivulets.
Dazzling, luminous, your chariot
didn’t stop to see what this bump was.
Didn’t even look

at my sudden dying cry.
Tomorrow your charioteer will clean
my blood off the wheels. But, lord,
from the millions of bloodstains
marking the wheels,
how will you know
which was mine?