Anupama Raju

Anupama Raju is a poet, literary journalist, translator and communications professional. She is the author of C, a novel (2022) and Nine (2015), a poetry collection. Widely published, Anupama was Charles Wallace Fellow at the University of Kent, Canterbury and Writer-in-Residence at Le Centres Intermondes, La Rochelle, France.

Translator’s Note

I discovered Anitha Thampi’s poems after I moved to Thiruvananthapuram from Chennai. I experienced the intricate, playful and complex irony of her poetry as I read it in Malayalam. As a poet I find her technique and the manner she treats her themes immensely stimulating. As a translator, I am fascinated, challenged, provoked and even teased by her poems because of the resonances, the obvious limitations imposed by language and also the technique.

The five poems by Anitha Thampi I have translated from the Malayalam for this issue of Poetry at Sangam stand out for their themes, which are relevant today more than ever. The process of translation was enriched by the conversations Anitha and I had. Often, listening to her read a poem helped do justice to the rhythm and alliteration. In one case, I chose to not translate at all because I thought that was the best way I could do justice to Anitha’s technique and eye for detail.

In my experience, translation is a collaborative process and an intimate conversation, especially when the author and the translator share a respectful chemistry. When it’s poetry, all the more so.