I liked these, the last one most of all.

The first one got my attention in the beginning, wondering what you would say, and liking what you did say. "blue infinities" works well for me.

The idea of being "unlanguaged" in the second is intriguing, the form nice with even lines being shorter than odd ones (I noticed this detail after noticing that the sound worked; then I examined why). The change to lover walking under trees from birds is a bit surprising, and a little risky if the reader tries to examine relationships, though I think largely it works and the last four lines there are very well constructed, with very nice imagery (Snow-armored trees - though I'm not sure "sparse" makes sense there).

The last one works very well for me, in both form and meaning. I liked "puny fires" very much.

One thing about the first verse is that the uneven line breaks are distracting. In the second verse, putting "of" in line 3 to line 4 would make the rhythm of line 4 seem more like that of line 2.

I liked the Gulzar piece very much, though can't recall the original Hindustani. I'll say more about that in another post on another day - should really get some sleep now so I can pack some more tomorrow.

Poorvi

Hi all,

I agree with Rasik in that it would be nice to have a much broader focus mainly because I think genres can be at most poorly defined and even if defined can be better understood by looking at their "external" influences. And then there are many writers who have been influenced or at least taken in by India and the Indian Diaspora, Octavio Paz and Dereck Wallcot being two who come to mind that it would be more fun if we talk about them as well. And what about P.G. Wodehouse? I bet a lot of Indian humor, at least the kind that gets written in English, derives some energy from that master!

Thank you Poorvi , for clearing up that terminology bit on "fundaes". And since I have tried my hand at translating Faiz, I suppose we could get started on "Poetry in translation" as a sub topic here with Faiz as the starting point. What do you think? I also wonder why Faiz seems to be the butt of so many translations ranging from very good (Agha Shahid Ali) to very bad (my own)?

Maureen also brought up a relevant point when she said that music be included into the agenda. Ghalib, Faiz and more personally Gulzar (a lyricist, filmmaker, poet etc) have been sung and celebrated. So onwards with that I say.

Having finished reading a novel Deep River by Shusaku Endo, staying up all night, I would recommend it to the list. It's relevant to the list because this novel is set in India with the river referring to Ganges. And for those given to God and such, it was an interesting exploration of those matters.

Hope everyone had a joyful 4th in the US and a good weekend elsewhere.

Joy! Sashi

Hi ya'll,

Since everyone seems to be in the intro mode, I would also like to add to the general hullabaloo. I read quite a bit, atleast as much as that curly marsh of delta and sigmas(Ref: Golden Gate - V.Seth) that waxes and wanes(my engineering PhD) allows me to.

Currently I am reading (mostly) non fiction(Ian Buruma's Bad Elements, Wendell Berry's Art of Commonplace) and poetry( Yehuda Amichai's collected poems). I also write poetry and hobnob with a poet(Thomas Lux) getting critical appriasal and resisting his suggestions to attend a writer's workshop. So I would be intrested adding my two bits, if the occasion arises, to discussions on poetry and getting to hear from the lit pros.

Also since the topic: "the writing process" has been mentioned, I was wondering if that would include scrutiny to the end result or exposition of general "fundaes" on how to write?

Joy! Sashi