Picking this book, a discerning writer is bound to be struck by the thoughtfulness behind its title바카라s typeset. The book claims to be the autobiography of a goddess, whose name is printed in lower case. Is the legend of Andal bigger than the woman herself? Or is it a stylistic nudge towards Andal바카라s constant insistence on challenging the fixity of identity, name being its prime marker? This collaborative work of translation of Andal바카라s poetry from Tamil into English is a multi-terrain journey encompassing the slippery turf of translation studies, the lofty mounts of Bhakti poetry and above all, the raging sea of female sexuality.
Priya Sarukkai Chabria and Ravi Shankar are poets in their own right, thus imbuing this translation with a unique sense of poetics. Ravi바카라s 바카라It pervades the air with his name바카라Hari. Hari. Hari. Hurry!바카라 therefore does not appear gimmicky despite its license with the target language, and neatly complements the transcendentalism of Andal바카라s life and poetry. Ravi focuses on the poetics and aims at rendering the linguistic features of Andal바카라s verses equally magnificently in English, admittedly taking 바카라some liberties바카라. Priya바카라s pen, on the other hand, veers towards the multiplicity of ideas in the verses. Each reading, each performance, reveals a new Andal. Andal바카라s desire for the almighty mirrors itself in Priya바카라s attempt to capture Andal in her limit-defying vastness.
As scholars of devotional works would vouch for, translating the word of/for god comes with innumerable challenges. Literal and metaphorical meanings of verse, inscapes of the devotee vis-a-vis the objective correlative, and in the case of women poets devotion for the lord versus a desire for carnal congress with Him send the translators hunting for equivalences in the target language. Anton Popovic바카라s formulation on untranslatability as 바카라a situation where the relation of expressing the meaning, ie the relation between the creative subject and its linguistic expression in the original, does not find an adequate linguistic expression in the translation바카라 helps explicate Priya and Ravi바카라s project. Their translations complement and contrast each other바카라s and address this question of 바카라loss and gain바카라.
The interaction between the different translations of the same verse presents us with a Bakhtinian dialogism, where the supremacy of one version, one interpretation and one identity is challenged. This collaborative translation alerts the readers to the politics of the individual versus collective interpretations of god.
Andal바카라s poetry enjoys an enviable place in the Bhakti canon. She invokes the divine like no other saint. Her love for Vishnu is about an unequivocal affirmation of women바카라s sexual agency. Unlike Mira바카라s Krishna, Andal바카라s Hari is a full-bodied masculine presence. Like Andal바카라s wearing of the deity바카라s garland doesn바카라t defile it, her carnal longing for his form, while rejecting mere mortal lovers, also does not sully the bhakt-bhagwaan relationship.
One of the intriguing features of this edition of Andal바카라s poetry is that it takes the poet바카라s renown for granted and does not attempt to give it a detailed context. The reader is expected to be familiar with not only Andal, the goddess, but also Kodai, her poet-devotee avatar. The introduction does not delve deep into the life of Kodai. Instead, the reader explores her through her poetry. The introduction puts to rest the speculation about Andal바카라s existence. Did the only woman Alvar saint even exist? Priya and Ravi decide that these questions do not matter, since we have this treasure trove of poetry passed on to us. Yet, the fragments from Periyalvar바카라s storytelling about his daughter Kodai follow the translations of Tiruppavai and Nacciyar Tirumoli in an attempt to establish her separate identity, or at least a persona.
The epiphanies of Andal are expressed in her poetry, which is a formidable part of Tamil Sangam literature. The translators have their own epiphanic moments, their joys of discovery. The reader, a recipient of the prasadam of Andal바카라s garland of poetry, has hers.
The Word
Each day in the month of Margazhi gets its name from one of the 30 stanzas of verse, in praise of Lord Perumal (Vishnu), that make up Andal바카라s Tiruppurai.
