Translated Woman

I travel between cultures,
I journey between languages,
I am the witness of merging
histories and geographies,
I break barriers with my dreams;
I am a translated woman…

I keep liaisons with many tongues,
Malayalam woos me in northern
ballads, Tamil makes love to me, 
Hindi whispers sweet nothings
to me and old fashioned
Sanskrit tries to court me in
style; French flirts with me,
while crafty English flits
around me in magic realism –
I am a translated woman…

My insides are a tug of war
between the East and the West,
who keep their trysts in
the darkness; they have met
and courted somewhere
and now live together in sin –
I am their progeny -
In the East, I am fairer
than the fair; in the West,
I am darker than the dark;
I am a translated woman…

I am the soul of the other
in the body of the self ;
My landscape, the interplay
of light and dark; my aesthetic
is here and there -
I spin Odysseys in Carnatic
ragas; I am a cross between
a rudra vina and a Stradivari;
I am the brushstroke of
Ravi Varma dipped in
Monet's colours;
I am a translated woman…


I traverse the seas and plant
myself on alien shores;
I transfer my songs into alien
thoughts; I transmute myself
into new shapes; I transcreate
myself in new forms; I translate
my consciousness and crafty
English makes poetry with my tears;
I am a translated woman…

Notes:

1. The term translated woman is an adaptation of Salman Rushdie's phrase “translated man”.  The term is used in relation to immigration and postcolonial displacement.
2. Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi, Sanskrit – Indian languages
3. Nothern ballads or Vadakkan Pattu  - are heroic ballads of North Kerala (South India)
4. Carnatic – South Indian
5. Raga – set of notes (in Indian music) that reflect a mood
6. Rudra vina – Indian string instrument
7. Ravi Varma  (1848 – 1906) – well known South Indian painter, whose works are mostly based on Hindu myth.