1. Vision is in English in the original. No Hindi word is given.
2. Vision is in English in the original. No Hindi word is given.
3. ‘Intensity’ is the translation that Agyeya offers for ‘tivrata’.
4. Agyeya translates ‘hetuvaad’ as ‘rationalization’, but I have used ‘sophistry’ to maintain consistency.
5. Agyeya seems to be referring to a line from T.S. Eliot’s ‘Tradition and the Individual Talent’, but he has misquoted it: ‘The mind of the poet is the shred of platinum. It may partly or exclusively operate upon the experience of the man himself; but, the more perfect the artist, the more completely separate in him will be the man who suffers and the mind which creates; the more perfectly will the mind digest and transmute the passions which are its material.’
6. Agyeya’s translation.
7. In English in the original.
8. Agyeya’s translation.
9. Luigi Pirandello (1867–1936) was an Italian dramatist, poet, novelist and short story writer. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1934.
10. The third part was never published. See Translator’s Note.
1. Banda Singh Bahadur (1670–1716).
2. In Nagari-English in the original.
3. Arthur W. Ryder, ‘Shakuntala’, in Kalidasa: Translations of Shakuntala and Other Works (London: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1912).
4. In retaliation for a practical joke, Narad cursed Vishnu to endure separation from his beloved when he took birth on the earth (the basis of the Ramayana).
5. Kalidasa, The Dynasty of Raghu, trans. Robert Antoine (Calcutta: Writers Workshop, 1972), p. 94. The original lines are from Kalidasa’s Raghuvansh, canto 8, verse 46. This can be compared to a more literal translation of the lines: ‘If this garland of flowers had killed her all of a sudden why does it not kill me though I have placed it for a long time on my breast?’ from Gopal Lallanji, ed., Kalidasa’s Raghuvansham: An Account of the Family of Raghu (Varanasi: Indological Book House, 1992), p. 112.
6. A translation of ‘satyam shivam sundaram’.
7. Alfred, Lord Tennyson, ‘Maud’, part 2, 5.1.239–46.
8. Alfred, Lord Tennyson, ‘Maud’, part 2, 5.1.247.
9. In Nagari-English in the original; Agyeya supplies a Hindi translation.
10. In English in the original.
11. Bal Gangadhar ‘Lokmanya’ Tilak (1856–1920) was an important Indian nationalist and social reformer.
12. Jatindranath Das (1904–29) was an independence activist and revolutionary; he died while on hunger strike in Lahore jail.
13. In Nagari-English in the original.
14. Rabindranath Tagore, ‘Nirjhorer Shopno Bhongo’.
15. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–82), ‘Pride of Youth’ (1880). Most editions have these lines rendered differently: ‘Alas for all / The loves that from his hand proud Youth lets fall, / Even as the beads of a told rosary!’
16. Agyeya glosses ‘love’ in the Rossetti poem as ‘pranay’; to retain consistency, I’ve used ‘love’ wherever Agyeya uses ‘pranay’.
17. Agyeya offers ‘impersonal’ as his gloss for ‘akartrik’.
18. Rabindranath Tagore, Balaka, verse 8.
19. In English in the original.
1. In Nagari-English in the original.
2. The naming ceremony usually happens ten days after birth in most Hindu traditions; it is believed that the first ten days after the birth are unlucky.
3. In Nagari-English in the original.
4. In Nagari-English in the original.
5. In Nagari-English in the original.
6. A common way to refer to all parrots.
7. In English in the original.
8. The misspelt English is in the original text. It is followed by a translation in correctly spelled Hindi.
9. In English in the original.
10. A temple dedicated to the goddess Bhawani. It is located fourteen miles east of Srinagar. Kheer means rice pudding, which is offered to the goddess every spring. It has now been attached to the name of the temple.
11. A bridge that connects the two halves of Srinagar, built in the eighteenth century.
12. Zeb-un-Nissa (1638–1702) was the oldest child of Aurangzeb (1618–1707).
1. Dante Gabriel Rossetti, from the sonnet sequence ‘The House of Life’ (1881). This is from the sonnet ‘Known in Vain’. Most versions are slightly different: ‘Ah! who shall dare to search through what sad maze / Thenceforth their incommunicable ways / Follow the desultory feet of Death?’
2. Also known as ‘gulkand’.
3. Also known as ‘chyawanprash’.
1. See ‘The Homecoming’, Rabindranath Tagore Omnibus, vol. 1 (Delhi: Rupa & Co., 2004), pp. 891–2.
2. The actual poem is simply called ‘Oenone’. I assume he added ‘The Death of’ to make it clear that it was a narrative poem and not some strange word which might not have been clear in translation.
3. Most editions of the Tennyson poem capitalize ‘Autumn’.
4. Most editions of Rossetti’s ‘Last Confession’ use ‘growing’.
5. Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton (Lady Stirling-Maxwell) (1808–77).
I Do Not Love Thee!
I do not love thee!—no! I do not love thee!
And yet when thou art absent I am sad;
And envy even the bright blue sky above thee,
Whose quiet stars may see thee and be glad.
I do not love thee!—yet, I know not why,
Whate’er thou dost seems still well done, to me:
And often in my solitude I sigh
That those I do love are not more like thee!
I do not love thee!—yet when thou art gone,
I hate the sound (though those who speak be dear)
Which breaks the lingering echo of the tone
Thy voice of music leaves upon my ear.
I do not love thee!—yet thy speaking eyes,
With their deep, bright, and most expressive blue,
Between me and the midnight heaven arise,
Oftener than any eyes I ever knew.
I do not love thee! yet, alas!
Others will scarcely trust my candid heart;
And oft I catch them smiling as they pass,
Because they see me gazing where thou art.
6. Kalidasa, The Dynasty of Raghu, trans. Robert Antoine (Calcutta: Writers Workshop, 1972), p. 94. The original lines are from Kalidasa’s Raghuvansh, canto 8, verse 46. This can be compared to a more literal translation of the lines: ‘If this garland of flowers had killed her all of a sudden why does it not kill me though I have placed it for a long time on my breast?’ from Gopal Lallanji, ed., Kalidasa’s Raghuvansham: An Account of the Family of Raghu (Varanasi: Indological Book House, 1992), p. 112.
7. Most versions of Rossetti’s ‘The Song of the Bower’ have ‘illumes’ whereas Agyeya uses ‘illumines’.
8. Most editions of Frances Pilkington’s Madrigals have ‘fall’n’ whereas Agyeya uses ‘fallen’.
9. Most editions of Frances Pilkington’s Madrigals have ‘cannot tell’ whereas Agyeya uses ‘knows not’.
10. Transliterated into Hindi in the original.
11. While Madrasi is no longer politically correct, it is preserved here to mark the text’s social context.
12. Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–92). Agyeya changes the order of Tennyson’s lines.
Come into the Garden, Maud
Come into the garden, Maud,
For the black bat, Night, has flown,
Come into the garden, Maud,
I am here at the gate alone;
And the woodbine spices are wafted abroad,
And the musk of the roses blown.
13. Veene Sheshanna (1852–1926) was a talented veena player with a background in classical Carnatic music. He was patronized by the princely state of Mysore.
14. Tagore, ‘Life of my life, I shall ever try’.
15. Tagore, ‘Fruit-Gathering’, verse LXXI.
16. Rabindranath Tagore, ‘The Lotus’.
17. Formal greeting.
18. Later on the same page, the girl’s name is Savitri. This is most likely a typographical error, but it is there in both the Mayur and Saraswati editions.
19. Agyeya provides the translation in English.
20. In English in the original.
21. In English in the original.
22. It was called Madura under the British; it is now known as Madurai.
23. Jayadeva’s Gita Govinda, ashtapad 3–1. Lee Siegel renders it thus: ‘When winsome westerly winds caress comely creeping cloves, As bumblebees’ buzz-buzzing and cuckoos’ coo-cooing resound in huts, in groves.’
24. Jayadeva’s Gita Govinda, ashtapad 11–1. Agyeya has inverted the lines; the line beginning ‘Gopi’ comes first, but since it is the ‘objectionable’ line, the inversion works in the interest of the drama. Reprise: dheer sameere = in gentle, wind (breezy); yamuna teere = on Yamuna, riverbank; vasit vane = located in (lingering in), garden; vanamalee = one who wears leafy garland, Krishna.
25. A self-decapitated tantric goddess.
26. In Nagari-English in the original. Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Beata Beatrix (ca 1864–70).
27. In Nagari-English in the original.
28. In Nagari-English in the original.
29. Alfred, Lord Tennyson, ‘Break, Break, Break’ (1842). Both Mayur and Saraswati have errors (using ‘crag’ for ‘stones’ and ‘day’ for ‘bay’). These errors have been corrected, as there was no good reason to retain Agyeya’s mistakes.
30. Agyeya offers a translation in English, so I preserved the Hindi.
31. In English in the original.
1. This has to be hyperbole since we encounter Shekhar running away from home earlier.
2. In Nagari-English in the original.
3. Agyeya offers this as a translation of ‘guardian angel’.
4. In Nagari-English in the original.
5. In Nagari-English in the original.
6. In Nagari-English in the original.
7. In Nagari-English in the original.
8. ‘The oracle has spoken’ is written in Nagari-English in the original.
9. In Nagari-English in the original.
10. In Nagari-English in the original.
11. In Nagari-English in the original.
12. Immolation of widows on the funeral pyre.
13. Self-immolation, especially by Rajput women evading capture by invading armies.
14. Perhaps a reference to the Mughal practice of execution by elephant.
15. Translation provided by Agyeya in both Saraswati and Mayur.
16. In the Ramayana, Ram asks Sita to prove her fidelity by walking on a fire.
17. In Nagari-English in the original.
18. Agyeya has ‘professor’; I chose ‘guru’ to retain the sense of religious instruction from the previous line.
19. Agyeya uses club, society and league to describe the same group.
1. The list up to this point is in Nagari-English in the original.
2. All the philosophical references are in Nagari in the original. ‘Stoic’ is added in parentheses in both Mayur and Saraswati.
3. In Nagari-English in the original.
4. I’ve used Agyeya’s offered translation.
5. In English and then translated.
6. In English and then translated. Here, the translation in Hindi differs slightly from the English, so I’ve offered them both.
7. Edna St Vincent Millay (1892–1950), ‘First Fig’ from A Few Figs from Thistles (1920).
8. In English in the original.
9. In English in the original.
10. In English in the original.
11. In Nagari-English in the original.
12. In Nagari-English in the original.
13. In Nagari-English in the original.
14. Literally, ‘egg of electricity’.
15. Agyeya uses ‘shasya-shamala’, which is lifted from Bankim Chandra’s ‘Vande Mataram’. I have used Aurobindo’s translation of the phrase, which has been recognized as the official translation of the poem by the Indian government.
16. In Persian-Nagari in the original. A couplet sometimes attributed to Amir Khusro (1253–1325).
17. Both Mayur and Saraswati have used ‘horse’; I changed it to ‘mule’ to retain consistency with the earlier prose.
18. Mayur and Saraswati both have ‘horse’.
19. In Nagari-English in the original.
20. In Nagari-English in the original.
21. In Nagari-English in the original.
22. In Nagari-English in the original.
23. In Nagari-English in the original.
24. Criminal Investigation Division of the colonial police.
25. In Nagari-English in the original.
26. In Nagari-English in the original.
1. Agyeya uses ‘jail’ but it is clear that he means ‘prison’.
2. In Nagari-English in the original.
3. ‘Vande Mataram’ by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee.
4. In English in the original.
5. Agyeya switches between ‘hakim’ and ‘magistrate’ for this person.
6. In Sanskrit. Mantras said while offering sacrifices to the fire during a Hindu wedding.
7. In Nagari-English in the original.
8. In English in the original. Agyeya offers his own translation in Hindi.
9. Likely from Avadhuta Gita 1:12: ‘Aatmanam satatam vidhi sarvatrekam nirantaram.’
10. Agyeya seems to be moving between Hindu and Christian traditions here.
11. In Nagari-English in the original.
12. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–82), ‘The Song of the Bower’. Most editions of this poem have ‘illumes’ where Agyeya has ‘illumines’.
1. In Nagari-English in the original.
2. In Nagari-English in the original.
3. In Nagari-English in the original.
4. Agyeya translates the Urdu ‘afeef’ as ‘sanyam’.
5. In Nagari-English in the original.
6. Probably Rossetti’s Beata Beatrix.
7. Agyeya takes some liberties with Tennyson’s poem ‘Crossing the Bar’ (1889):
Sunset and evening star
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea,
But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.
Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;
For though from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crossed the bar.
8. In Nagari-English in the original.
9. In Nagari-English in the original.
10. In Nagari-English in the original.
11. In Nagari-English in the original.
12. In Nagari-English in the original.
13. In Nagari-English in the original.
14. Agyeya has translated this title as ‘A Sketch of History’; I’ve used the original title.
15. In Nagari-English in the original.
16. The smritis are sacred Hindu texts composed of truths revealed to the Brahmins.
17. Agyeya seems to be quoting the first part of the Bhagavad Gita, sloka 9–26.
18. A reference again to the Bhagavad Gita, sloka 9–26.
19. Atharva Veda, Book 19, hymn 15, verses 5–6. The translation comes from Ralph T. Griffith, Hymns of the Atharva-veda (Varanasi: Master Khelari Lal, 1962).
20. Rabindranath Tagore’s ‘Aaji Marmara Dhwani’. Agyeya misremembers some of the lines, perhaps because of the conditions under which he was writing. The original version has been translated here. Importantly, the song was in Bengali and rendered into Devanagari by Agyeya.
1. ‘Serious’ and ‘septic’ are in Nagari-English in the original.
2. In Nagari-English in the original.
3. In Nagari-English in the original.
4. In Nagari-English in the original.
5. Agyeya appears to be misquoting from the Bhagavad Gita 9–26. He has substituted ‘vessel’ for ‘fruit’ most likely because he is recalling the verse from memory, rather than referencing the text.
6. Most likely a reference to Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s ‘The Lady of Shalott’ quoted earlier in the novel.
7. In Nagari-English in the original.
8. In Nagari-English in the original.
9. In Nagari-English in the original.
10. In Nagari-English in the original.
11. Parijat—a tree from Hindu mythology.
12. Referring to the myth of Niobe.
13. In Nagari-English in the original.
14. Raktabeej (from rakta—blood, and beej—seed) was a demon who was granted a boon according to which each drop of blood he lost in battle would reproduce another one of him—until he was finally slain by a devi.
15. In Nagari-English in the original.
16. In Nagari-English in the original.
17. In Nagari-English in the original.
18. In Nagari-English in the original.
19. In Nagari-English in the original.
20. Georgia Johnson (1880–1966), ‘I want to die while you love me’. Agyeya has taken the first and third stanzas and omitted the second and fourth stanzas. Quoted in English in the original.
21. In English in the original.
22. In Nagari-English in the original.