[INDOLOGY] Questions about Octavio Paz's Indian sources

[Caroline DUBOIS]

Dear List Members, 

I would like to thank you for your invaluable help in my investigations on Octavio Paz’s Monkey Grammarian. Thanks to your precise and documented informations, I could identify the very probable translation from which Paz rewrote his text. Actually, even if he indeed stayed in Paris between 1959 and 1961, that is to say a very short time after the publication of Hymnes spéculatifs (1956), it seems that he decided to use Renou’s first translation (1938) : Octavio Paz keeps « salta » whereas Renou abandoned this term in the 2nd translation.

I already knew that in several places he condensed elements taken from different parts of Sanskrit sources, such as the Ramayana or the Shatapatabrahma, but he always gave a reference. In this case, he left it hidden. Besides the symbolic interpretations, it shows that the structure of the Vedic ritual was used as a metatextual metaphor.

I am deeply grateful for your help and I am pleased that this list exists and is ready to help people who work in other fields. 

Kind regards,

Caroline Dubois


> Le 19 nov. 2018 à 22:25, Georges PINAULT <georges.pinault at wanadoo.fr> a écrit :
> 
> Dear Caroline Dubois,   Thanks for your query. It would be extremely interesting to search for the Indian sources of some of the themes of Octavio Paz. The  title Monkey Grammarian evokes "Classical" India by itself. I have identified the sources of the quotation which you give: it corresponds clearly to RigVeda 4.58, a famous hymn, so called "mystical" hymn, to the sacrificial clarified butter, which is identified to the soma. I cannot comment here on this wonderful hymn, but it is translated in several anthologies, in addition to the complete translations of the RigVeda (Geldner, 1951 and now Jamison & Brereton, 2014) : see for instance L. Renou, Hymnes spéculatifs du Veda, Paris, 1956, pp. 33-35. The text of Octavio Paz is some kind of paraphrase/synthesis of the stanzas 5 to 8 (see precisely p. 34 of Renou's book) of RV 4.58. The wording of the quotation which you give corresponds precisely to some passages of Renou's translation. This hymn has been translated two other times by Renou, first in Hymnes et prières du Veda, Paris, 1938, p. 47-48. Since Paz, if I am  not mistaken, spent some time in France, I do not exclude, and even I surmise, that he has known Renou's translations. It would be interesting to check which of Renou's translations he has effectively used for this transposition. 
> 
> I remain at your disposal for further information. Best wishes,   Georges-Jean Pinault (EPHE, Paris)
> 
>  
>  
>  
>  
> > Message du 19/11/18 16:04
> > De : "Caroline DUBOIS via INDOLOGY" <indology at list.indology.info>
> > A : indology at list.indology.info
> > Copie à : 
> > Objet : [INDOLOGY] Questions about Octavio Paz's Indian sources
> > 
> >
> Dear Colleagues, 
>  
> I am working on a PhD thesis in Spanish studies about the influence of Indian cultures on Octavio Paz’s poetry, in Lille University. Although I have some knowledge of Sanskrit, it is still very limited. 
>  
> In the Monkey Grammarian, the following excerpt looks like the translation of a liturgical hymn: 
>  
>  «Brotan los arroyos de mantequilla (la verga de oro está en el centro), corren como ríos, se reparten y huyen como gacelas ante el cazador, saltan como mujeres que van a una cita de amor, las cucharadas de mantequilla acarician al leño abrasado y el Fuego las acepta complacido.» (Original text, published in 1974)
>  
> «Jaillissent les ruisseaux de beurre (la verge d’or est au centre), ils roulent comme les fleuves, se divisent et fuient telles devant le chasseur les gazelles, sautent comme des femmes courant au rendez-vous d’amour, les cuillerées de beurre caressent les bûches embrasées et le Feu s’y complaît et les accepte.» (French translation published in 1972, before the original Spanish text).  
> 
> I thought it was written after a Vedic hymn but I was unable to find anything similar in the R̥gveda. I would be very grateful if somebody can identify the original text. 
>  
> Besides, in the epigraph of the same book, Paz quotes Dowson, A classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology:
>  
> «Hanumān was a grammarian; and the Rāmāyana says: “The chief of monkeys is perfect; no one equals him in the sāstras, in learning, and in ascertaining the sense of scriptures (or moving at will). It is is well known that Hanumān was the ninth author of grammar”.»
>  
> Would anybody know where I could find more information about that tradition of grammarians?
> Are there anymore informations than what is given by Muir and Colebrooke?
>  
>  
> I thank you in advance for your help
> Kind regards, 
>  
> Caroline Parvaty Dubois
>  
> 
> 
> 
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