Hello Venetia,
since you explicitly mention other languages, I can't resist
"pushing" the Hungarian translation of the Gitagovinda. It's the
work of one of our senior Indologists, József Vekerdi (still with us
and probably still angry at the poet for much of what he's done to
the text), and one of the best Hungarian poets of the second half of
the last century, Sándor Weöres (departed quite a while ago). The
result is nothing short of breathtaking, though I guess nobody but
us Hungarians can appreciate it. If interested, the full text is
available (without the authors' consent, as far as I know) online:
http://terebess.hu/keletkultinfo/dzsajadeva.html
The point is that it's a metrically perfect translation (well, 99.5%
perfect - unlike English, Hungarian is not based on stress accent,
so poetry measured by syllable weight works in this language) that
can be recited just like the original (indeed, there is an anecdote
that someone once recited this to an Indian audience and listeners
said, ah, could that be the Gita Govinda in your language?), also
duplicating most of the rhyme and assonance. The reason for
Vekerdi's anger is of course that Weöres was occasionally quite free
in his treatment of the meaning, but then, I believe much of the
original Gitagovinda isn't about the precise meaning either...
Best,
Daniel
2013.01.09. 6:26 keltezéssel, Venetia
Kotamraju írta:
Dear List,
A very happy new year to all.
Has anyone come across translations which try to convey the
shabdalamkara found in a particular Sanskrit verse or poem in
English (or other languages). Apart from the brilliant
translation of the Gita Govinda by Lee Siegel, and a few stray
verses here and there, I can't think of any others that I have
read at least.
Many thanks
Venetia
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Venetia Kotamraju
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