Poems by Avinash Mishra 

Oh, oooh!
Ode to an Untranslatable Poem by Avinash Mishra, in three parts
 
 
उ ऊ 
अविनाश मिश्र
 
करुणा बहुत बड़ा शब्द है
लेकिन मात्रा उसके ‘र’ में
छोटे ‘उ’ की ही लगती है
 
रूढ़ि बहुत घटिया शब्द है
लेकिन मात्रा उसके ‘र’ में
बड़े ‘ऊ’ की लगती है
 
जो जागरूक नहीं होते
वे जागरूक के ‘र’ में
छोटा ‘उ’ लगा देते हैं
 
लेकिन जागरूक होना बेहद ज़रूरी है
और इसकी शुरुआत होती है
जागरूक के ‘र’ में बड़ा ‘ऊ’ लगाने से
 
और अगर एक बार यह ज़रूरी शरुआत हो गई
तब फिर शुरुआत के ‘र’ में
कोई बड़ा ‘ऊ’ नहीं लगाता
औेर न ही ज़रूरी के ‘र’ में छोटा ‘उ’
 
 
I. Indologist Style
 
The word karunā means ‘compassion’ and is quite long
As you can see, there’s a short ‘u’ in it, not a long one
Don’t forget that the ‘u’ is nestled inside the ‘r’ *
 
The word rūṛhi means ‘tradition’ or ‘custom’**  and is rather short
All the same, this word has a long ‘ū’, not short, as you might think
As with the above, make sure it is nestled alongside the ‘r’
 
Those who are not aware, i.e., jāgarūk***
Mistakenly insert a short ‘u’
alongside the ‘r’ of jāgarūk
 
But being aware is really so very important!
And the way one begins
is by making sure that’s a long ‘ū’ snuggling up to the ‘r’****
 
And once you’ve made this necessary beginning
You must remember that in the word shuruāt, ‘beginning’
There are no long  ‘ū’s
And that in the word zarūrī, ‘necessary’, the ‘ū’ nestled with the ‘r’ is actually not at all short
 
 
* In the Devanagari writing system, the letters for u, and ū are both written along the right side of the letter for ‘r’, rather than beneath the consonant, as is normally the case.
 
** NB: If the suffix -vād (-ism) is added to rūṛhi, it takes on the meaning ‘conservative.’ The poet may be subtly pointing toward a critique of conservativism even as he ostensibly takes on the misplacement of long and short ‘u’s.
 
*** The poet is likely referring slyly to political awareness here.
 
**** I.e. not a short one, as in the previous verse.
 
 
II.  Freestyle
 
Compassion is a mighty big word
But it comes with a shhh
Such a tiny sound
 
The word conserve is quite ambiguous
If you don’t add an -ative
You might end up with jam
 
Those who are not woke
Would cross out the ‘o’
And add two ‘a’s
 
But it’s very important to be woke, not just awake
And for starters
One needs to know the word does not begin with an ‘a’
 
Once you’ve got that first letter nailed down
You must remember there are two ‘t’s in letter
And to hit a nail
you need a hammer, with two ‘m’s
 
 
III. Google Translate Ishtyle
 
Compassion is a very big word
But the volume of his ‘r’ in the
Small ‘h’ sounds the same
 
The word dogma is very poor
But the volume of his ‘r’ in the
Big "ugh ‘looks
 
Who are not aware
They are aware of the "R" in
Small ‘h’, attaches
 
But awareness is vital
And it begins
Aware of the "R" in the big ‘F’ planting
 
And once it became necessary Introduction
Then start "R" in
A big ‘F’ does not
Nor necessarily the "R" in the small ‘u’
 
 
Translated from the Hindi by Daisy Rockwell
 
 

The Consequences of Not Coming to 

I’ve always addressed mothers as mothers, sisters as sisters, gods as gods.
 
I’ve called fathers fathers, brothers brothers, a stone a stone.
 
But I’ve never called anyone a Guru that referred to himself as such.
 
If I catch sight of them in the morning my whole day is ruined, so I change my route.
 
I keep on my way, trying to avoid their influence.
 
Whenever someone called themselves a Guru, I cut their classes and spent my afternoons in carom-playing clubs.
 
And if anyone there was trying to pass himself off as a guru, I’d give him some hot samosas and take off to watch dirty movies at the theater as evening fell.
 
But it was difficult to avoid Gurus: some I ran into in the outskirts of town; some upstairs at a bar. Once they’d achieved such heights they’d already lost their Guru-dom and come tumbling down to earth.
 
As night deepened, it would seem me that tumbling down was really all they knew how to do.
 
After this, I’d come stumbling home to eat the last meal of the day and fall asleep, so I could avoid them as morning broke.
 
 
Translated from the Hindi by Daisy Rockwell
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Avinash Mishra (born in 1986, Ghaziabad) is active in poetry, fiction, criticism, editing and journalism. He is the author of the poetry collections Agyatwas Ki Kavitayen (2017), published by Sahitya Akademi, and Chaunsath Sutra Solah Abhiman: Kaamsutra Se Prerit (2019), published by Rajkamal Prakashan, as well as the novel Naye Shekhar Ki Jeevni (2018), published by Vani Prakashan. His latest novel is Varshavaas (2022), published by Hind Yugm.
 
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Daisy Rockwell is a painter and award-winning translator of Hindi and Urdu literature, living in Vermont. She has published numerous translations from Hindi and Urdu, including Ashk’s  Falling Walls (2015), Bhisham Sahni’s Tamas (2016), and Khadija Mastur’s The Women’s Courtyard. Her translation of Krishna Sobti’s final novel, A Gujarat Here, a Gujarat There (Penguin, 2019) was awarded the Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for a Translation of a Literary Work in 2019. Her translation of Geetanjali Shree’s Tomb of Sand (Tilted Axis Press, 2021; HarperVia, 2022) won the 2022 International Booker Prize and the 2022 Warwick Prize for Women in Translation.

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