MAMTA SAGAR

2010-06-22T19:33:00.038+05:30

Mamta Sagar is a Kannada poet and playwright from India. She has three collections of poems, four plays, a collection of column writings and a collection of essays on Gender, Language, Literature and Culture for her credit.She has conducted theatre and poetry workshops in India and abroad, culminating with readings and productions for women, children and people from marginalized communities. Her poems are translated into many Indian languages including English, apart from Vietnamese, Cebuano, Serbian, Slovenian, Russian, Galician, Chinese, Japanese, Maltese, Spanish and French and have seen publication in various journals and poetry anthologies in those respective languages. As a poet, Mamta was invited to participate in international Poetry Festivals at South Africa, Colombia (Latin America), Cuba, Vietnam, Nicaragua, Slovenia, US, France and London. With a specialization in Comparative Literature, Gender Studies, Kannada Literature and Cultural Discourse, Mamta has presented papers at national and international conferences and seminars. She teaches at the Centre for Kannada Studies, Jnana Bharathi, Bangalore University and presently she lives in Bangalore, India.

Two Poems
by Mamta Sagar

A RIVER POEM

Inside the river are
the sky, the cloud, and the cold sun.
In my hands’ bowl is the river.

If I throw up my hands,
the river spills in drops, scattering
sky, cloud, and sun all o’er me.

From my hands’ bowl, if I drink
the river, then within me,
the sun, the cloud, and the sky.

Tell me, who is in who?

Translated from Kannada
by Chitra Panikkar with the poet

a leaf from the tree
gliding
sliding
swinging
like a kite caressing the wind
now a boat on the river
along with colourful fish
a green flash on the
shining golden water
moved hurriedly
disappeared with the flow
water doesn’t know
air doesn’t know
tree doesn’t know
fish don’t know
this game of hide and seek.

Translated from Kannada
by O. L. Nagabhushana Swami

My Family

with parents and brothers.....

with Sham

with Chukki(Amshu)

BEYOND BARRIERS..........

Poetry connects people beyond their language, region, class, caste and gendered identities. I have lived this experience and this booklet is a result of one such. On behalf of Centre for Slovenian Literature (CSL), I was invited by Brane a fine poet and a dear friend to participate in the International Poetry Translation Workshop culminating in the International Poetry Festival held at Ljubljana, Slovenia in 2010. During the translation workshop, my poems in Kannada were translated into Slovenian, the host language. Locating oneself in an unknown language culture and translating in and out of it makes us sensitive to issues, subjects, sound and significance voicing in those literatures. My travel brought two poets, Brane and Veronika and two short story writers, Suzana and Andrej to India. They visited Bangalore during April 2011 and interacted with local writers, artists, activist groups, people interested in literature etc. Many individuals, institutes, organisations and translators have contributed to the happenning of these literary events. As a continuation of this, Kannada poet Arathi H.N presented her poems at the Ljubljana Poetry Festival, 2011 and brought the vouge to and end. This expedition, a search through poetry was successful in initiating us towards imbibing experiences explicit to cultures and an exchange of the same between individuals. This booklet attempts to capture the journey where poems by two Kannada poets flowed into Slovenian while poetry and short stories from Slovenia got translated into Kannada.

Agrahara Krishnamurthy, Secretary, Central Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi; Shashi Deshpande, eminent Indian writer writing in English language, Ranganath Rao senior journalist, were present @ the launch of BEYOND BARRIERS, a book by Mamta Sagar. Jayakar Jerome, Ambassador to Slovenian from India, Slovenian writers, Brane Mozetic, Suzana Tratnik, Andre Blatnik participated in the launch from Slovenia through net conferencing. Veronika Dintinjana, poet from Slovenian could not be present. Poets Arathi and Mamta with short story writers Suzana and Andrej along with the Kannada translators Dakshayini and Bhavya read from the book @ the launch. The Programme was hosted by the Central Sahitya Akademi's Regional Centre, Central College premises.

Thanks AVADHI for covering the event......

Thanks SAMAYA for the coverage given to "BEYOND BARRIERS Slovenian-Kannada Literature Interactions" by Mamta Sagar.

MS on 29th Dec 2011