Poetry at Sangam
Poetry at Sangam showcases poetry in English and translations as well as essays on poetics and news of new releases.
Gayatri Lakhiani Chawla is an award-winning poet, translator and French teacher from Mumbai. Her poems have been widely published in international anthologies and periodicals: Her poems are featured in the anthology Modern English Poetry by Younger Indians published by Sahitya Akademi, Yearbook of Indian Poetry in English and The Kali Project. Her poem won the Commendation Prize at The All-India Poetry Competition 2013. She is the author of two poetry collections – Invisible Eye longlisted for Cochin Lit Fest Poetry Prize 2018, and The Empress, winner of the 2018 US National Poetry Contest by Ræd Leaf Foundation for Poetry & Allied Arts and the Write Publish Publicize Contest at the Bengaluru Poetry Festival 2019. Accolades for her poetry include a special mention award in the Architectural Poetry Annual Competition 2020, the Panorama Special Jury Award at the Panorama International Literary Awards 2020, being shortlisted by Asia Pacific Writers and Translators in collaboration with Joao-Roque Literary Journal June 2020, and first prize at The New Normal Poetry competition by Poetry Paradigm and Oxford Bookstore. Her translated Sindhi poem ‘Safar’ won the first prize at the Kavya Kaumudi International Poetry Award. She is recipient of the Rahi Kadam Inspiration Award 2021. She is the author of Healing Elixir: The Hawakal Handbook of Angel Therapy, Numerology & Remedies. Her co-translations of Sachal Sarmast’s Sufi poetry are being published by Om Books International in a forthcoming volume.
How does one discover a rare woman Sufi poet? Someone whose work has been published and praised but is seldom accessible. Nimanoo Faqir is the name that surfaced, possible only after numerous conversations with family and friends, inheritors of an oral history. A nineteenth-century Sufi poet from Sindh, her poetry has the syncretic nuances of Sufism and mysticism. I was drawn to Nimanoo’s tone of vulnerability which connected spirituality to everyday life lessons. Her seemingly simple Sufi teachings and preaching of universal love struck an emotional chord. The two kalaams we discovered are spiritual songs sung by the Sufi dervishes of Darazaa. My co-translator, Lajwanti Jaisinghani was the medium through which I bridged the gap into Nimanoo Faqir’s world as she enhanced the process of translation with her superior knowledge of Sindhi kalaams and Arabic vocabulary. I recall one afternoon when she asked me if I knew what ‘bani’ meant. It’s an ‘old’ Sindhi word for daasi, servant, or, in this case, ardent follower. When I answered correctly, she was thrilled to know that I had retained some of what she had shared during our earlier translations of Sachal Sarmast. A project that began to brew when I was introduced to Sachal Sarmast’s poetry at a satsang where I heard his kalaam sung by a singer uninhibited in an aura of mesmerism. His spiritual poetry was alive and breathing in each word uttered by the people in the gathering, it was a revelation of another kind. The kaafi is a classical form of Sufi poetry; poems that are sung and recited mostly in both high and low vocal pitches. Often the sur is announced for the singer to employ while singing the kaafi. The title is sung and repeated after every line, giving it the required musical rendition. Most of the kaafis end with ‘Sachu says that’ or ‘Sachu thinks’. My co-translator Lajwanti Jaisinghani was very helpful in sharing the intense meanings hidden behind the kaafi. There is a reason why they are sung even today in at-home satsangs — most of the poems carry the essential message of love and peace which is relevant in today’s world. The Sindhi kaafi are co-translated from Lachman Hardwani’s book Sachal Sarmast ji Kavita in Devanagiri script.
Like Sachal’s kaafis, Nimanoo’s kalaams are mostly sung, hence we have tried to keep the musicality present in our English translations. The translations follow the structure and format of the original text hence are centralized like the original. We researched, using visual and auditory aids of image and language to decipher words and the often-esoteric meanings embedded in Sufi texts. In the Arabic script, numbers are allotted to each stanza and the ghazals often carry the sur in which they are sung. While transliterating, I grappled with each word to recreate the Sufi flavour of the mystic’s original text, retaining words like ‘Sai’ and ‘Sahib’. I’m thankful to Sahib Bijani from The India Institute of Sindhology for his unending support in my research about Nimanoo Faqir. The source text is from a book titled Sik ji Saugat in Devnagiri, a compilation of Sindhi kalaams written by Dada Ram Panjwani and Paru Chawla in the 20th century.
The translations are being published by Om Books International in a forthcoming volume.
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