UNIT 4 KONDEPUDI NIRMALA : MOTHER SERIOUS TRANSLATION : K. DAMODAR RAO VIMALA : KITCHEN TRANSLATION : V.V.B. RAMA RAO K. AYYAPPA PANIKER : I MET WALT WHITMAN YESTERDAY — AN INTERVIEW TRANSLATION: A.J. THOMAS ci Structure 4.0 Objectives 4.1 Introduction 4.2. Free Verse in Contemporary Telugu Poetry 43 Kondepudi Nirmala: Life and Works 44 ical Appreciation of the Poem Mother Serious 4.5 A Brief Note on Translation 4.6 Vimala : A Short Life Sketch 4.7 Kitchen : A Discu 4.8K. Ayyappa Paniker: A Brief Life Sketch ; 4.9 History of Malayalam Poetry up to the Time of Paniker’s Entry 4.10 An Overview of Paniker’s Poetry 4.11 Indian Background to Walt Whitman 4.12 [Met Walt Whitman Yesterday : A Discussion 4.13. Let Us Sum Up 4.14 Glossary 4.15 Questions 4.16 Suggested Readings 4.0 OBJECTIVES In this Unit you will sample Telugu and Malayalam poetry through the poems of K. Nirmala and Vimala in Telugu: Mother Serious and Kitchen and K. Ayyappa Paniker's poem J Met Walt Whitman Yesterday — An Interview. INTRODUCTIO! You have been introduced to the poetry from the Northeast and Kashmiri, Dogri, Punjabi and Hindi poetry so far. We shall now take up poetry written in two important languages from the South — Telugu and Malayalam. You will notice that there is a strong Indian-feminine voice in both in K. Nirmala and Vimla’s poems. On the other hand Ayyappa Paniker takes us on a journey to ‘America and what can be termed as an encounter between the East and the West. orPoetry 68. 4.2. FREE VERSE IN CONTEMPORARY TELUGU POETRY ‘Telugu Poetry (Free Verse) in the last three decades of the last millennium has ceased to be the exclusive domain of the elite and the leisurely. . Poetry has undergone a desirable transformation in that it has become totally democratized. Poetry has been seen as a force and a device that can have a sociological purpose to bring about a big change in the attitudes of people towards literature and civic life. In the hands of poets, poetry has come to be a device to whip up courage, enthusiasm and strength to press forward and forge ahead with gusto. The emergence of free verse became inevitable when people from different backgrounds began to give expression to their authentic experiences. Numerous people began to write poetry. Feminist poetry has made rapid strides since1 980s. To study modern Telugu poetry, one has to study both the traditional kind of metrical verse and the new and more popular from of free verse. Secondly, one has to study feminist poetry as an expression of feminist anguish and sensibility. It is a solid contribution to Telugu free verse, which compels attention. Telugu Free Verse dominated poetry after the 60°s of the last century Changes in society, lapses in the working of democracy, the urgency of social aspirations gave rise to crystallization of fresh expressive devices. Many poets have come under the indirect influence of western poetic achievement Humanism and psychological realism became popular expressive attitudes. Feminist trends have led to more and more women taking to poetic expression. Feminist poetry in Telugu is not an offshoot of the Westem Women’s Lib. Women began to assert themselves. Poignantly conscious of their tribulations, they began voicing forth their grievances in an emerging new idiom, new attitudes and novel turns of expression. New and forceful advocates of feminist thinking like Katyayani Vidmahe and the social enthusiast Volga found committed supporters among the elite too. They became popular pocts, writers and even crusaders. Newspapers gave the new writing immense support. Poets like Savitri (whose poetry was produced in a collection after her death), Jayaprabha, Kondepudi Nirmala, Vimala and host of others found the right atmosphere to come up with a gusto giving rise to a specific, meaningful direction to the gathering currents of women’s liberation. It was their idiom and the forthrightness of their nuances that electrified the readers. ‘Their imagery, tone and attitude revealed a determination, never before noticed in ‘women’s writing in Telugu, Jayaprabha’s Yasodhara ee vagapenduke? (1986), Kondepudi Nirmala’s Sandhigdha Sandhya (1988), Nadiche Gaayaalu (1990), Volga’s collection of several women poets’ poems Neelimeghaalu are some of the most important publications, to name only a few. Volga’s collection where she included the main trends of feminism with a variety of stances and expressive devices in a brave new idiom has come to bewidely discusséd and critically examined. Some poets came under severe criticism for the pungency of their diction. Works of Patibandla Rajani, Mandarapu Hymavathi, Jaya and Mahajabeen gathered a large readership though their individual stances differed. Women began to assert and establish their rights to a free, frank and fearless expression. Some could wield their pens to wring tears from readers. Gone for good are the days for demureness, delicacy and modesty. Figures of speech like Innuendo and euphemism are given the go by. Conveying the anguish, the poignancy of passion for being downtrodden in a hundred ways, demanded forthright attacks. Irony and satire were used extensively. A few ‘examples to make these points clear: Wouldn't there be oppression When there is a woman’ (Savitri) As there are pills to drive the milk dry If there were 10 be potions the sofi sensibility to parch How nice it would have been! (Patibandla Rajani) Life should be securely held and protected Even from the one to whom the heart is given (Jaya) None come this way, except t0 eat My mother is empress of the kitchen But the name (etched) on pots and pans is my father’s! (Vimala) Cage I'm and a bird too ... devise an idiom for the recognition of my existence (Silalolita) Enough if only this organ could be flung away Enough if another creation would stop her (Geeta) Instead of giving his floor a dung wash, we piss on it Rip open his entrails with the sickle we have tucked in the waist We'd skin him and with that on the drum play around (Kasti Viiyalakshmi) Feminist writing has various hues and various stances. Vasantha Kannabiran, Jayaprabha, Vimala, Patibandla Rajani, Geeta and others have been writing consistently with their own individual stances though in the main stream of feminist writing. The movement at the hands of these adherents has different degrees of intensity and power. In the mainstream there are radicals, liberals, Marxists and exponents of socialist leanings. ‘The depth of their indignation ‘and impatience with male domination varies. Vasantha Kannabiran in her Sareeram cries out: ‘My body became a sacrificial goat/ To the patriarchal tradition” Jayaprabha takes’pallu’ sari-end as a symbol of offensive and disgusting inequality. Paita (Telugu) Pallu (Hindi) should be burnt, she says. She calls the poem indignantly Paiténu Tagaleyyali. She suggests the termination of the system which reduced woman to a walking corpse in an exploitative culture. ‘The means adopted by the feminist poets to voice their suffering and the validity of their stances led to a kind of crystallization. For some the hard fact Mother Serious, Kitchen, | Met ‘Whitman Yesterday: An Interaview 0Poetry 70 is that Feminism has coine to stay. Now it is all bang with no trace of a whimper. 4.3K. NIRMALA : LIFE AND WORKS. Kondepudi Nirmala was bom on March 26, 1958. She had her education at Vijayawada. She studied in Stella Maris and obtained her graduate degree. She discontinued her study of journalism in Osmania University to become @ ‘working, journalist and a creative writer too. Today she is known more as a poet than as a journalist. She was inspired by the old veteran Gunturu Seshendra Sarma and the great poets late Devarakonda Balagangadhara Tilak, Aloorui Bairagi and the renowned bhaava kavi, Devulapalli Krishna Sast ‘She holds the conviction that poetry is a powerful ‘weapon’. She avers that new things and novelty whether in matters of expression or a trend first appear only in poetry. She has varied experience in Print, Electronic and Web Media. In the area of social work and in the Feminist Movement, her contribution has been significant, The poem prescribed for study is a sample of her very particular stance in the Feminist thinking. ‘The most significant of her work in poetry came out in four collections so far: Sandhigdha Sandhya (Hesitant Twilight) 1988 Nadiche Gaayalu (Walking Wounds) 1990 Baadha sapta nadi (River accursed with pain) 1994 Multi-national Muddu (Multi-national Kiss) 2000 Some of the numerous awards received by Nirmala are: Free Verse Front Award in 1989 and also B.N. Reddy Award 1994 for Sandhigdha Sandhya, Nutelapati Gangadharam Award for 1990 and also Devulapall award in 1993 for Nadiche Gaayalu ishna Sastry Kumaran Asan award for her dynamic writing in 190 ‘The Poet of the Year 1994 from SBR Cultural wing ‘Mother Serious was first published in the poetry column Saudamani in Udayam Weekly on 1-12-1989 Nirmala’s poetry has an unusual twang of power in felicitous expression with a capacity for intermingling tropes effortlessly. As a feminist her stance has been to sting the reader into thought with powerful ideas presented in a way that they stick and lurk in the minds of those given to sharp thinking. Her lines sometimes have sharp cutting edges while compellingly drawing tears from the sensitive and the thoughtful. ‘The poem is an authentic experience of the anguish and dread of being a ‘woman. It is an impassioned utterance:‘The moment you enter The labour room You see inferno in 3-D: either hell on earth or the earth in hell A river of pain on each table. Hands stifling screams. Cries, calls Howls. Yous, ‘Throes. Spasms, All normal, quite normal. - ‘Translated from Telugu by the author and edited by A.K. Ramanujan (Penguin: In their own voice) In the poem ‘Help us cross the Moosi’ in her anthology Baadha Sapta Nadi (River accursed with pain) (1991) there is anguish again for a different aspect of feminine life, for being cursed to be born as a woman: Mothers are we who made sacrifices ‘Suffering litle doves slip from our wing Housewives we are taken to flight Unable to hear the seream of our life-mates : Please help us cross the Moosi.. We are queen Padminis burning in humiliation We are the ones straggling on the capital’s brow Like wisps of wronged Draupadi’s hai Closing anguish, closing life, closing tales of the old city We are on the road for any sustenance meagre Please help us cross the Moos 44 A CRITICAL APPRECIATION OF THE POEM MOTHER SERIOUS ‘The title itself is telling. Here is an English ttle for a Telugu poem on mother —a theme universal and eternal. ‘Serious’ is a word used widely by speakers of Telugu to signify the condition of a person critically ill. Mother Serious denotes the critical condition of her health as also the intense anguish the mother suffers, The poet has expressed, apart from physical suffering, the mental agony the old mother in her terminal illness suffers, powerfully and convincingly. The tropes merge into one another to create an electrifying effect. The emotion behind the expression makes for ease in creating a new idiom. Mother Serious sounds like the construction used in telegraphic language. “The speaker of the poem is the time waiting for the inevitable. iling old mother, bedridden for, quite some ‘The speaker tells her son using an endearing vocative “abbee” that she doesn’t have any more desire to live on. She says she would give an answer (an explanation) for his unasked que: Mother Serious, Kitehen, I Met Walt ‘Whitman Yesterday: An Interaview nn She knows what everyone around has been waiting for. Everyone has been hopefully expectant. She finds in their solicitous inquiries a painful hollowness. Right behind their inquisitiveness is their looking forward for ‘that’: a relief from the long wait for her death. She doesn’t say this straight but uses the powerful device of suggestion. Then she aims a barb at her son too: his fingers pressing on her back she cannot escape finding a kind of compulsion. She tells him straight that the litle mouthful of water he makes her gulp is not just water but is the very flow of living and life. She draws his attention to the slow ooze from out of her eyes. At this point we hear the remarks of a bystander that the old woman doesn’t appear to decide any thing either way. Then suddenly she signals everyone to be quiet lest the old lady should hear. ‘A poet like Nissim Ezekiel uses this technique of introducing a comment of the people around in The Night of the Scorpion. With every movement that the scorpion made His poison moved in Mother's blood, they said. May the sum of evil balanced in this unreal world against the sum of good become diminished by your pain may the poison purify your flesh of desire, and your spirit of ambition, they said, and they sat around con the floor with my mother in the centre the peace of understanding on each face. ‘The interior monologue of the mother, the central, helpless character in the poem goes on: “No need to move to open my eyes. ‘My ears like twin-boats carry the weight of your words. Note the strikingly novel use of the term boats for ears, suggesting the burden ‘on the mind of the mother. The mother is then reminded of her breast feeding him even while he was half asleep. “Then there is the repetition of the first line: | don’t have the wish any longer to live on, abbee! (The translation you have studied has the lines, Thave no wish to live any longer, dear son! as the fifth and sixth lines, When she opens her eyes, she sees people scampering hither and thither and wonders whether she has ever scene so many shapes. ‘Then comes another jab: In order to test his mother’s consciousness level, the son asks her to identify the people standing around her. This offends the ‘mother and she points out that while she is sinking, and her son has given hera “brain teaser’, a problem to solve. So she suggests that he should consult her pillow which has absorbed all her dreams and her heart which smiles of her tears. The pillow and the heart will together give him all her woes heaped up ona platter, as it were. She wants her own son to realize how hellish her existence is when she can’t move any limb of hers and only her ears are alive, The last few lines suggest the impending collapse of the mother. The complexity of the similes and metaphors used so effectively makes the poem intensely authentic. In an interview Nirmala defined poetry as that which ignites thought and creates unrest (in the mind). The expressive devices go far beyond the usual figures of speech. There is novelty in phrases such as — ‘as quickly (readily) as giving suck when the kid in sleep turns round’ or ‘ears like twin boats laden with the weight of words they bring ...’ There is many an expression like this which rivet the attention of the reader on the lines leaving a lasting impression. 4.5 _A BRIEF NOTE ON TRANSLATION Evaluating translated texts is a difficult task. Here are some bits of another translation against the one that you studied, Examine the two versions and sive your reasons for preferring the one or the other. (If you know the original poern, it is all the better) The translation you studied Another translation sent by the poet will give a reply I don’t want to live any more, my son to your unasked question I will give explanation to your unasked question Strangely you all seem Strangely, all seem that they wanted it to be. expecting it Thave no wish to live any longer, dear son. Ears themselves come carry the weight of your words carrying the weights of words like'a couple of boats Now | feel Now I feel my body alive my life, and as light as the cotton even if eased like the used to blot the wet of the navel of the new baby cotton that touches the navel blood and I fee! as ifit fell down ofan infant, with the weight of the wounds under the weight of my ears, that the ears have made will break down, Feminist poetry in Telugu has several shades and stances. The degree of intensity of commitment varies and so does the intensity of suffered pain and indignation against oppression and subjugation. Nirmala describes the feelings of an old and ailing mother, apparently disillusioned with human relationships, Mother Serious, Kitchen, I Met Walt Whitman Yesterday: An BPoetry 4 ‘The poem you have studied is memorable for the intensity of the poet's feeling for the mother’s sad plight. A little affection appears to be all that she has been looking for. The poem provokes the reader to think giving a picture of the human condition in general and the mother’s in particular. It is an illustration too of the poet's capacity to communicate with novel expressive devices. 6 _VIMALA : A SHORT LIFE SKETCH Vimala (b. 1963) was from @ middle class family in Hyderabad, She was brought up in a fairly liberal environment where she was left to be mostly herself in matters of study, thinking etc. She was inspired by Marxist ideology. He father was active in the Telengana struggle. Right from her student days, Vimala had a flair for organization. She worked in student organizations. She took to writing after her graduation in 1983. In 1986 she set to work to revive the Progressive Women’s Organization. She was the editor of Vimochana, a women’s rights journal for nine years. She was committed to the cause of emancipation and empowerment of women. She has been associated with Asmita, an organization of women for women’s uplift. Her collection of poems Adavi Uppogina Raatri has made an intense impact with revolutionary fervour. The poem ‘Digambara ootegimpu’ (Procession of the naked) is a powerful indictment on patriarchal violence. 4.7 _ KITCHEN : A DISCUSSION Free from the dazzle and complexity of thinking, the poem simply ridicules ‘the system where a woman is reduced to a moron and a machine in the kitchen. Kitchen is another symbol of a cage, of cruel subjugation and inconsiderate oppression, ‘The poem while describing with realism the little place ‘where none comes to eat” with all its noise, aromas and nostalgic experiences. The nostalgia is a fine sentiment and a fine memiory but the place and its oppression rob the experience of its beauty. Besides employing devices of irony and satire, the poem brings out the pitiable plight of women, the mother figure. The tropes rise to @ crescendo delivering the final barb — this time with severe ridicule: the names on pots and pans (in the empire of the empress, the mother) are the man’s. the tone. There is Cooking and serving, cooking and serving, ‘Scrubbing and washing ‘There’s a kitchen in my dreams, the smell of spices even it. the jasmine, Damn the kitchen.‘Then comes the peroration, the nail is hit in the head: Let’s smash these kitchens Let’s uproot these separate stoves, ‘The forward-looking nature of the poet envisages the future of a new woman which includes today’s little girls: ur children are about to enter these lonely kitchens, Come, for their sake, let's demolish these kitchens now! © \Vimala’s poem is about the inequity in our social practice where a woman is reduced to drudgery. The point she makes is applicable to ninety-five percent of women in homes in this country. The ‘queen’ has only been a sugar coating, a kind of attempt to pre-empt any protest from womenfolk where they are made to slog. The way they are brought up is different even today. ‘The Poem has a very strong, carefully and artistically embedded message. ‘Students would not fail to see the difference of approach to the condition of suffering in women as delineated In the two poems they Have studied, 4.8K. AYYAPPA PANIKER: A BRIEF LIFE-SKETCH K. Ayyappa Paniker (1930-2006) K-Ayyappa Paniker, noted Malalyalam poet and ertic, and an internationally known academic in English language and literature, was born on 12! September, 1930, in Kaavaalam, a small town situated amongst the idyllic backwaters of Kuttanaad, Alappuzha district, Kerala, He took M.A. degree from the Kerala University. In 1971 Ayyappa Paniker acquired AM and Ph.D degrees from Indiana University, U.S.A. under the supervision of Prof. Robert Mother Serious, Kitchen, 1 Met Walt Whitman Yesterday: An Interaview 8Poetry 16 E.Gross. In 1981-82 he did post-doctoral research in Yale University and Harvard University. He made use of his stay in the US to visit at least 25, Universities; he also got in touch with poets like James Dickey, John Hollander, Czeslaw Milosz and Allen Ginsberg and scholars like Cleanth Brooks, Harold Bloom, Charles Feidelson, Jr., Frederic Jameson and others. He taught English literature for forty years in Kerala University and retired as Head, Institue of English, and Dean, Faculty of Arts. He has published four volumes of collected poetry (Ayyappa Panikerude Krutikal, Vols.1-1V) in Malayalam. His collections of poems in English translation are: / Can't Help Blossoming (2003), Days and Nights (2000), Gotrayanam (1990) Selected Poems (1985) and Kurukshetram (1960). He has several collections of critical essays in Malayalam and English. Has been Chief Editor of Medieval Indian Literature: An Anthology (in English translation) and Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature (Revised Edition) of the Sahitya Akademi and of the Complete Works of William Shakespeare (in Malayalam translation). Edits Kerala Kavita, an annual journal that has been noted for its boldness in publishing the works of poets and crities who cannot boast of any proven track record but have the spark, along with those of veteran writers. Recipient of Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award, Sahitya Akademi Award, lately the biggest literary award of the land, Saraswati ‘Samman (2005) for his criticism and poetry, besides several other awards, and honours like the Padma S 4.9 HISTORY OF MALAYALAM POETRY UP TO THE TIME OF PANIKER’S ENTRY Malayalam, the mother tongue of nearly 47 million Malayalees worldwide, of which about 32 milfions (Census 2001) live in Kerala — the state situated in the south-western comer of peninsular India — is believed to be more than a thousand years-old and is one of the four major Dravidian languages, the other three being Tamil, Kannada and Telugu. Like Kerala which is so accommodative to foreigners, where ancient Romans, Jews, Syrians, Chinese, ‘Arabs and others and after the Renaissance in the West, the Portuguese, the British, the Dutch and the French found havens for trade in spices, ivery, rosewood and teakwood, its language — i.., the basic Dravidian stock — also absorbed elements from the languages of the above cultures. Alongside this, there has been a regular engagement between the proto-Malayalam and the Prakrit and Pali of the Buddhist-Jain era of Kerala and with Tamil and Sanskrit in later times, accelerating its evolution into modern Malayalam. The earliest poetry in Malayalam can be traced to the folksongs connected with religious'rituals dating back to primitive Dravidian times, many of which are extant even now, preserving the native musical traditions. The song tradition further developed to include those of different communities like Hindus, Christians and Muslims and of trades and occupations like farm- labour, boating etc. The ballads of the north, central and southern Kerala and the songs related to the hundreds of performing art forms, contributed in forming the foundations of Malayalam poetry. Ramacharitam of the 12" century AD (some say 14" century), written in one of the earliest forms of Malayalam, is the oldest extant classic in the language.From the 14" century onwards begins the era of Manipravala kavyas, or, poems written in a language which was a mixture of Malayalam and Sanskrit, used prominently in performing arts like Koodiyaattam, Koottu, etc, and in several Sandesa Kavyas modelled on the Meghadoot of Kalidasa. Champoo, a mixture of prose and verse, also developed about this time. Another significant phase was that of the great, adaptations of the epics Ramayana, Mahabharata and the Bhagavata, spanning a period from the 13! century to the 16" century by the Niranam poets first, and then by Cherusseri, and by Ezhuttacchan, hailed as the Father of Modern Malayalam who served to complete the evolutionary process of the language, standardizing it Ezhuttacchan, Poontanam Namboodiri and Melpattur Narayana Bhattatiri, more or less contemporaries, were the prominent bhakti poets of Malayalam. Aattakkatha (Kathakali texts) by various authors from the 17" century onwards and Tullal verses developed by the great Kunchan Nambiar in the 18" century, further enriched Malayalam poetry. ‘The 18" and 19" centuries are marked by the contributions of Christian Missionaries and native Christian priests and court poets like Ramapurathu Varier and later, Irayimman Tampi and his daughter Kuttikkunju Tankachy who lived during the reign of the great composer-musician king Maharaja ‘Swati Tirunal of Travancore. The 19” century also saw the rise of the Venmony school of poetry, a predominantly Namboodiri-initiated movement celebrating a libertine, decadent life, devoid of moral strength or high seriousness, and accenting on erotic escapades. But the end of this century saw the flowering of the one-man movement set in motion by Kerala Varma Valiya Koiltampuran, who represents the confluence of two major traditions in literature — the Sanskrit classics and the English/European classics, in Malayalam literature; he is revered even now as a great synthesizer. The early 20" century witnessed the birth of several Mahakavyas in Malayalam beginning with Mahakavi K.C. Kesava Pillai’s Kesaveeyam, in the neoclassical tradition. This was also the time of the beginnings of khanda kavyas which reached culmination in the supreme poetic. works of N. Kumaran Asan, Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer, Vallattol Narayana Menon (known as kavitrayam — trinity of poets) and several others, inaugurating the ‘equivalent of the romantic movement in Malayalam. ‘The second generation of Romantics, a large number of poets mostly influenced by the style of Vallattol, the most important among them being Nalapat Narayana Menon, G. Sankara Kurup, P. Kunhiraman Nair, Vailoppilli Sreedhara Menon and Nalapat Balamani Amma, brought about the exuberant growth of Malayalam poetry in the mid-20" century. Two younger poets of this time, Edappally Raghavan Pillai and Changampuzha Krishna Pillai, blazed a trail of intense romantic lyricism, changing forever the concept of poetic diction. O.N.V. Kurup, P. Bhaskaran and Vayalar Ramavarma were the strong camp-followers of the Edapally school. In sharp contrast was Edasseri Govindan Nair who used a non-romantic diction to present stark realism, although he, along with Vailoppilli Sreedhara Menon and P. Kunhiraman Nair, forms the later kavitrayam. N.V. Krishna Warrier, Akkitham Achuthan Namboodiri and Olappamanna followed the Edasseri line. is was the state of Malayalam poetry as Ayyappa Paniker found it, when he ushered in the era of modemist poetry along with pioneers like Madhavan Ayyappatt and Cheriyan K. Cheriyan in the 1950, Mother Serious, Kitchen, I Met Walt Whitman Yesterday: An Interaview 78 4.10 AN OVERVIEW OF PANIKER’S POETRY. One of the founding fathers of modernist poetry in Malayalam, Ayyappa Paniker has a poctic career spanning over a half-century from the early fifties of the last century to the present. Noted for his pioneering innovations in form, introducing modern western models right from the time of the Dadaist phase. Paniker gave the young generation back then, the courage to break free from the centuries-old verse form confined to a few traditional metres, to which the Malayalee poet was chained. Not that he discarded metre altogether; in metrical designs also, his new touch left its mark — as K.Satchidanandan observes, he brouight back to Malayalam poetry the vibrant Dravidian and folk metres, as well as the ancient, grand Sanskritic metres which were hitherto rarely used. He invented ‘metrical collages, rhymeless verse with irregular rhythms, and stylized as well as sinuous, forthright prose’. He also experimented with different existing forms like “the confessional mode, hymns, lullabies, dramatic monologues and classical ballets’. Meaning took precedence over mellifluous voice; metonymy and paradox. overtook alliteration and assonance. With an amazing range from outright romantic lyricism, gentle irony and satire, to biting sarcasm, dark humour and shocking cynicism, Paniker’s ouevre is rich in variety of form and content, marking the poct’s journey through one of the most eventful epochs of the history of Kerala's society. Successive generations of Malayalam poets owe allegiance to Paniker in one way or the other. Beginning with Paniker's first important long poem “Kurukhsetram” written over a seven-year period from 1951 to °57, and published in 1960, in which “the actual and the timeless, the phenomenon and the idea, meet eye to eye in the equivocations of a disinherited mind” the poet progressed through “Pururavas” (1959), “a dream-work that reinterprets the mythical search of the woefil Urvashi tumed into a wild creeper in the valleys of Gandhamadana, under her master’s spell’, Other landmark poems followed. “Hey, Gagarin!” is a poem dramatically addressed to the Russian cosmonaut, the first man to go to outer space, and exhorting poetry to reach such heights. In “Mrutyupuja” (Hymn to Death, 1967), a poem interwoven with Hindu and Hebrew myths, written in the ‘Dandaka’ metre used in Kathakali verse, ‘the poet turned singer invites death to take away his breath as the terrible anticipations of the sunless day “Death”, “The Night” and “I Know Your Face” find their somber fulfillment’. “Kudumba Puranam” (The Family Legend) takes a look at the history of the human race through his own roots. Satchidanandan sums up Paniker’s two American sequences — “Days and ights” (1970) and “Passage to America” (1972) — as revealing fully “the possibilities and the limitations of Paniker’s poetry — his preoccupation with love, death and the futility of life, his aversion to politics, war and urbanity, his black humour, his frai) passions of lust’ Beginning with the seventies, Paniker advocated the need for evolving an jom that is ‘post-modernist’ — in the sense that it comes after the modernist phase. Till then, Paniker’s poetry was marked by his natural reaction to old~ world sentimental idealism, sensuous imagery and artificially embellished language; it was the quintessential modemist reaction. But as time passed and the contexts changed, Paniker began to write poems free from the deliberate anti-romantic mode adopted in modernist poems — a new kind of lyricismjuxtaposed with ironical expressions began to appear in his poetry. In Ayyappa Panikerude Krutikal Vol, II (1981-89) and VoL.IV (1990-99), poems with these ‘post-modern’ features appear predominantly. Introducing cartoon poems, caricature poems and the like, he kept on changing the mode of his poetic utterance, without even once-falling into the stereotype of any of the literary movements. Without using strong verbal expressions and sensuous ing syntax and words loaded with suggestiveness. Writes E.V. Ramakrishnan: “In the poems of the 90s, Paniker closely examines the changing nature of Kerala society. The 90s have been a period of widespread changes in Kerala society. Literature has lost much of its centrality, the written word giving way to the omnipresent and omnipotent visual medium, with all its crass philistinism, ‘The migrant Malayalee has created a diaspora of a sort .... The poems Paniker wrote during this period are highly critical of the evolving social scenario. He is at his satirical best ‘when he exposes the vanity of contemporary Kerala society .... Poems like this also chart the changes that have happened to the affluent Malayalee who has grown more self-centred and narrow-minded. Paniker uses prose with telling effeet in such poems where irony is inseparable from double~ voicedness". Further forward in the essay, Ramakrishnan goes on to say. “There is a more lyrical idiom in Paniker’s poetry that may not be easily available for translation. This lyrical mode is metrical and musical, making translation difficult, if not impossible” 1 Met Walt Whitman Yesterday — An Interview is a ‘dialogue-poem’, a form Paniker improvised. This poem relates to his American experience and was 4.11 INDIAN BACKGROUND TO WALT WHITMAN Whitman's Indian sensibility with his understanding of Indian philosophy is seen as early as Leaves of Grass. Though Whitman began his serious literary career in 1842, with Benjamin's New World publishing hiss Franklin Evans; or The Inebriate, a novel, the most important body of his work remains Leaves of Grass, the collection of his poems which took aboard his growing corpus of poetry for the rest of his life, so that beginning in 1855, the book went into tevised editions in 1856, 1860, 1867, 1871-72, 1881-82, and 1891-92. All his major poems written over nearly a half-century are found in these volumes and form the quintessence of his philosophy. Whitman was like D.H.Lawrence in his rejection of cold logic. They were both ‘anti-rational,” and glorified intuitive perceptions. He would not belong to any movement, school, dogma or creed. He was the ultimate humanitarian, who believed in the innate dignity of man, and disregarded social conventions and public morality, The entire cre ‘of God was encompassed in his creative empathy. Whitman's concept of democracy consisted in total liberty, equality, and fratemity among humanity. He developed a simple, unadomed, homely language and wove his poems through repetitive words and phrases, bringing the quality of a chant to his works. Through his poems, he went on asserting the common bonds of humanity. Indian philosophy, especially the Bhagavadgita, had influenced him deeply. “Whitman always sought to explore the transcendental nature Mother Serious, Kitchen, 1 Met Walt Whitman Yesterday: An Interaview 9Poetry 80 of reality. His vision led him into the regions extending beyond the limits of empirical experience. The unknown, the unseen. the unheard and the unexpressed, revealed to his mind the deepest truths about the Uhimate Reality. To an Indian reader Leaves of Grass should have a special significance, since in respect of its transcendentalism it carries palpable overtones from the Bhagvadgita, which was his constant ‘companion. In Song of Myself one hears echoes of Lord Krishna in the Gite With music strong I come, with my comets and my drums, | play not marches for accepted vietors only, | play marches for conquer'd and slain persons... Itis for the wicked just the same as the righteous, I make appointments with all, 1 will not have a single person slighted or left away, ‘The kept-woman, sponger, thief, are hereby invited. There shall be no difference between them and the rest. “The saint and the sinner, the alms-giver and the beggar, the high and the low- are welcomed by the genuine creative artist who, God-like, receives them all in his arms. The correspondence between the Bhagvadgita and Leaves of Grass becomes still more intimate when Whitman suggests his potentiality to assume any form. With a peculiar resonance from the Gita, one reads: I fly those flights of a fluid and swallowing soul. My course runs below the soundings of plummets. Thelp myself to material and immaterial, No guard can shut me off no law prevent me. anchor my ship fora little while only, My messengers continually cruise away or bring their returns to me. (Song of Myself) “Whenever the cause of righteousness shall fail, the Lord will descend upon the earth to redress all wrongs and undo the evil ---sseel tise, from age to age and take le shape, and move a man with men, Succouring the g00d ....nsnmnnnne (The Song Celestial- The Bhagavadgita) “Its in the same symbolical role that Whitman, representing the Divine Self, proclaims: . Believing | shall come again upon the earth afier five thousand years, Waiting responses from oracles, honoring the gods, saluting the sun, Helping the Lama or brahmin as he trims the lamps of the idols. “Again, if the Lord holds equal both gain and loss. influ and efflux. victory and defeat, joy and pain, so does Whitman equate all opposites: Have you heard that it was good to gain the day”” 1 also say it is good to fall, battles are lost in the same spirit in which they are won.fhe wise man is he who can transcend all contraries. and perceive a fundamental unity beneath all diversity. In expressing the wi unfathomability of the soul, Whitman again seems to echo the voice of the Lord: : I know I have the best of time and space. and was never measured and never will be measured. Jam an acme of things accomplished. and | an encloser of things to be. (Song of Myself) in in “Song of the Open Road”. he holds himself above all censure or Whoever denies me it shall not trouble me, Whoever accepts me he or she shall be blessed and shall bless me. “Although Whitman never fully elaborated his indebtedness to Indian thought, he seems to have been intimately conversant with the “Shastras and Vedas” (Song of Myself), often ima: iching his favourite pupil the loves, wars. adages. transmitted safely to this day from poets who wrote three thousand years ago”. (Sali Au Monde). Leaves of Grass is full of allusions to “the epics of Asia's” and “the elder religions”. From the vast store-house of philosophic thought, “the infinite greatness of the past.” emerges India as an integral symbol of man’s quest for the infinite-India with her “Mowing literatures, tremendous epics. religions. castes, old occult Brahma interminably far back, and the tender and junior Buddha... .”. (Passage to India) “India, in the same poem. symbolises “primal thought”. holding the key to the aged fierce enigmas”. She is like “the Elder Brother”. guiding the “Younger” (America) into regions unknown: © Thou transcendent, Nameless. the fibre and the breath, Light of the Light, shedding forth universes, ‘Thou centre of them, ‘Thou mightier centre of the true. the good, the loving. ‘Thou moral, spiritual fountain-affection’s source — thou reservoir... “But this poem is not a “passage to India” only: itis a “passage to more than India”, since it gathers within its symphonic cumulation all that may be best in the great religions of the world, both Eastern and Western. All the great savants and philosophers have recognised the supremacy of the unknown over the known, the transcendental over the empirical. If the senses of the body do not ultimately lead us on to the Divine Self. they have not performed their true function. In his poem “Portals”, he asks: What are those of the known but to ascend and enter the Unknown? “Whitman always believed that “grander far was the unseen soul of comprehending, endowing all those, light i. the sky and stars, delving the earth, sailing the sea (What were all those, indeed, without thee, unseen soul? Of what amount without thee?)” y other Seriows, en, 1 Met Walt Whitman Yesterday: An Interaview 8Poetry 4.12. 1 MET WALT WHITMAN YESTERDAY: A DISCUSSION 1 Met Walt Whitman Yesterday — An Interview is a poem that is regarded as a perfect sample of the various innovative forms of poetry Ayyappa Paniker iroduced to Malayalam. It has a special kind of structure, that of an imaginary interview in the reverse mode—with the subject asking all the ‘questions — with a poet dead and gone more than a century ago. The full text of the poem is given below in English translation, with a detailed interpretation of it section by section. The poem is meant to awaken the conscience of the reader to the pretentiousness of our countrymen at a certain period in the development of our progressive society. just before or during the period of the Emergency (1975-77) when this poem was written. Paniker had lived in America for his doctoral research which was completed in 1971; the frame of the interview may have been drawn up in his mind during. that period, but the actual writing of the poem was done a few years later. The poem is a “dialogue” poem. A dialogue between the legendary American poet Walt Whitman who lived and died in the 19" century and Ayyappa Paniker who was in the US for a couple of years ending 1971. and the terview taking place in Paniker’s imagination a few years later! | have also given below a short note on Whitman’s life and his connection with Indian philosophy. Well, what do you make of the posture of Paniker as the friendly poet of the later generation from India, visiting Whitman of the last century? Why do you think is Whitman bombarding Paniker with a battery of questions, which, if answered would unravel our real selves? Do you think that Paniker is aiming at social criticism though this poem’? Can you visualize Paniker, a short, diminutive, brown-complexioned person, with graying beard and hair, facing the hoary Whitman, with robust, hairy limbs, clad only in his, flowing white hair and beard, against the backdrop of the “rocking Mother sea” Though it is called a ‘dialogue’ poem, there is hardly any dialogue in it. Only once does Paniker call out with “Hey, Whitman’, And Whitman answers, “My friend. ..look...Columbus’ geographical error. history's gain. ..Paniker, | knew you would come again’. For the rest it is an interior monologue by Paniker, ‘and a barrage of questions and a monologue by Whitman, The “dialogue” take place within Paniker’s mind. The sub-title of the poem is “An Interview”. Again, apart from the above single exchange, and the questions and monologues, there is no interview. It is rather an encounter. The interview would be completed only when we the readers answer Whitman's questions. The technique is highly dramatic. Anyone with imagination can sec Paniker probably paying a visit to Whitman’s birthplace in Long Island, near New York, of, his memory of a visit conjuring up such a vision of Whitman, who died in 1892. During a personal discussion long ago, Paniker told me that the expressions, ‘Casting his long shadow across Long Island, the poct- patriarch...” and “the poet-patriarch coming from Long Island” could even evoke the image of Veda Vyasa on the island in Yamuna. It would be a minor exaggeration to say that Whitman is to the Americans, what Veda Vyasa is 10 us Indians. but the westem idea of the ‘patriarch’ is accentuated by this suggestion.The intent of this poem is clearly discernible from the set of questions Whitman fires at Paniker. Paniker. through the persona of Whitman. is bringing out the paradoxes inherent in Indians, when facing the reality of the United States — culturally. socially. politically. intellectually. in the spheres of seience and technology and soon, Many of the double standards and pretensions of Indians in the United States are brought under the scanner of pungent satire. In the process, we get a glimpse into the real greatness of Indian philosophy which is respected in the US and the world over. though it has been in curreney over several millennia now. For an Indian living in the U.S. during the early seventies. the most prominent of the troubling questions would have been the India — U.S. relations soured then by the Indira Gandhi — Richard Nixon exchanges before and during the Bangladesh War and how Indians were looked upon then in the U.S. by the Americans. Another observation to be made is that the Indian immigrants ‘would not talk to each other. out of sheer snobhery. mutual apprehension of the possibility of the revelation of their respective identities and roots back home, or fearing the eventuality of a less fortunate compatriot seeking help when in dire straits! Another pettiness of the so-called *high-caste” average Indian in America, is prone to is to look at the African Americans (it is now considered politically and socially incorrect to call them blacks’ ot *Negroes’) like he/she does with a Dalit back home, and consider the white man as belonging to a higher ‘caste’. This might have elicited Whitman's question, “Do you prefer whites to blacks?” ‘The fact is that though racial differences and discrimination do exist in the U.S.. these are very di from the Indian caste system. The African American almost enjoys. one might say. a better “equality of opportunity” (Remember the Orwellian dictum, jome are more equal!) thanks to the high standards of work culture practiced in the U.S. Yet another point to remember is that India then used to be lampooned in America for claiming to be the ancient civilization which could even dream up an aeroplane like the Pushpak Viman, while in actual fact, we were requesting the U.S. for technical assistance in every field. The self-sulficieney we have acquired now in so many fields has improved this situation very much, though. The Indian attitude of going in for excellence in the western systems of knowledge. in science and humanities. while at the same time, keeping to our traditional knowledge, is also an enigma for an average American. All the paradoxes that emerge during such an encounter between an enlightened American and an Indian in the seventies, have come ‘out in the poem, in the form of the questions posed by Whitman. on one plane. ‘There are many other layers of meaning for every metaphor and its placement. ‘These are for the readers to contemplate on and arrive at. Paniker’s poetic techniques of irony and contrast, effected by juxtaposing disparate elements, come out wonderfully in this poem. A dotaiied analysis below would bring this out. ‘The poem has two parts. Part 1 begins thus: “Yesterday — or the day before — | met Whitman: met Whitman talking aloud in solitude about the popula Mother Serious,Poetry 84 Straightaway, the reader gets the image of a prophet from the Old Testament. which Whitman was likened to even during his lifetime, Paniker is using thi as.a launch-pad. It maybe noted that Paniker strikes a vague note: “...yesterday. or the day before...” This is to suggest that the time element in this poem is shifling back and forth. A late 20" century poet is in the presence ofa 19" century poet who. is asking the former a clutch of questions! The poet-patriarch, standing against the sun, so that his long shadow falls, across Long Island (Whitman was born and brought up in Long Island) is counting waves. These are no ordinary waves: each wave represents a generation of the American people. So, standing at the end of the day against the setting sun, (or, at this end of history) Whitman is taking stock of what happened during the past century. The next few lines like ‘rocking mother sea’, ‘wailing seagull’ “lilacs blossoming forth’, “frenzied drumbeats’ all allude to expressions generally found in Whitman's poems. The occurrence of these phrases are too numerous to be enumerated here. You could get a copy of Leaves of Grass and read the poems; it isa great reading experience. Paniker calls out to Whitman, Whitman tus to Paniker and describes ‘America, as ‘Columbus’ geographical error. history’s gain’. It is well known that as Columbus landed on mainland America, he sincerely believed that it was India where he had landed. Hence the copper-coloured inhabitants were called “Red Indians". Eventually it was called the New World, an addition to the geographical locations, known to man till then. This maybe “history"s gain’. ‘Whitman shakes Paniker’s hand and says, *Paniker. | knew you would come again’. Paniker pretends that he is surprised, but actually he is not. Because, he is from India, and believes in the doctrine of rebirth. The word “again” implies that Paniker was certainly there in a previous birth. After placing Paniker and Whitman face to face, shaking hands, the poet meres on to the latter part, reiterating, J met Walt Whitman yesterday and establishing the former. Now comes the “interview” part. The poet is amazed at the number of questions Whitman is posing. Apart from the questions I have already paraphrased in a paragraph above, Whitman asks Paniker whether we still have in India those Rishis and Mun who, cating nothing but their ‘silences’, give sage counsel to the rulers. “Eating only their silences” could plainly mean doing penance fasting, for long Pe it could also mean that the Rajagurus of old never took any remuneration for the advise and guidance they gave to kings. It could also. by an ironical inversion refer to the notorious yogis and godmen who controlled the powers that be in the nineteen seventies, and even later, to achieve their ‘own selfish ends. Some of them were indicted by the courts and imprisoned, The next question is a dig at the snobbish Indian visitor. who would endure any pains to go and visit the Niagara Falls, or other such world-famous toutist, spots in the U.S.. just for the sake of boast, and may not even bother to visit ancient Indian places tike the caves in the Himalayas where the sages of yore did penaneeLook at the juxtaposition of words like *Atom" and “Auman” in the next line, bringing out the paradox. in the seeming double standards about our search afier knowledge. The westem scientist who is wedded to rational thinking, would hardly go after metaphysical stuff, whereas several Indian scientists, many of whom are based in the U.S.. talk about mater and spirit in. the same breath, ‘The basic difference between the Eastern and Western thinking is brought out here. It might also be seen as a jab at the secret atomic bomb development programme by India, about which rumours were afoot for a long time after the Pokhran-I “peaceful” test of an atomie device in 1974. As for the American, *Atom’ and “Atman’ are both relevant. As far as “Atom” is concerned, the Americans are the world masters of nuclear technology and their decisions dominate those of the other countries of the world, as we have scen in the debates around the recent Indo-American ‘Treaty for Nuclear Energy, and how other western nuclear countries are willing to assist Indi ‘only if and when the US finally wraps up the deal and its Congress ratifies it *Atman’ stands for all the transcendental knowledge systems that have traveled from India to the US, which is growing strong with every passing year. Paniker, through Whitman’s persona, seems to ask the Indians to prefer ‘and uphold the unique moral and philosophical edge we have over the West. As mentioned above, the time of writing the poem, India had already tested its nuclear device in Pokhran-I, and was on the way to self-sufficiency in nuclear technology. Though the poem was written in 1976-77, the main themes are live and still relevant making the poem contemporary. Whitman says that his questions are coming out in spite of himself and not expected to be answered. As poets, they both are preoccupied, may be with better, poetic thoughts. In their flights of imagination, they are moving faster than time! Whitman then goes on to extol India for what she is really worth: her Vedic culture. He lists out great American writers and thinkers like Emerson, Thoreau, himself, all belonging to the 19" century and Whitman's contemporaries, and Martin Luther King Ir. , as having cherished the sweetness of this ancient culture. Observe Whitman mentioning Martin Luther King Jr., who died in 1968. Yes; Whitman is certainly speaking somewhere in the mid-seventies! Such great people, and the elements (here the earth) resonate with the same message of the Vedas. But people who are equipped with sensitivity and intelligence, do not sense it. “Those who have eats do not listen” is an inversion of an exhortation by Jesus Christ, “Those who have cars,clisten!” This reference seems to be to humanity in general, and not particularly to ‘Americans or Indians. In any case, it will be futile to pinpoint verisimilitude or exactitude in poetry. ‘The next four lines list different objects. is a parody of the general structure of many of Whitman's poems. It is a strategy adopted by Paniker to infuse the poem @ Whitmanesque touch into the poem. Parody here is not used satirically; it is more of a sample in demonstration, The last line of the poem is full of suggestiveness. In those times (and even now), the California coast of the western U.S. especially cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles, were considered the cultural centres of Ameri Mother Serious, Kitchen, 1 Met Walt Whitsan Yesterday: An InteraviewPoetry 86 All the new cultural movements sprouted and grew in those parts. Comparatively. the eastern, Atlantic coast, where cities which were centres of crass materialism and power, like New York were situated, was looked down upon by intellectuals and artists. Whitman would like Paniker to visit the real cultural core of the US, in the opposite pole of its materialistic, commercial capital New York which is located on the Atlantic coast. This may be the reason for Whitman’s exhortation, ‘Come, let's walk up to the Pacific Coast’. As I said earlier. these are single-layer meanings. There can be many more layers. Multiple meanings ean be generated through the peculiar placing of words and fines, by a deff artist like Ayyappa Paniker. 4.13, LET US SUM UP In this Unit you have studied strong feminist stands in K. Nirmala and Vimala’s Telugu poems — K. Ayyappa Paniker’s pioneering efforts in modernist poetry in Malayalam. You have studied in details both the free- verse in contemporary Telugu poetry and the innovations in form and content in Malayalam poetry. 4.14, GLOSSARY Breasted you: suckled you, gave you suck Stark: open (usually stark naked, means absolutely naked) T open my eyes piercing through layers of darkness: poetic way of saying, open my eyes s.Lo.w.Ly Dot in the question mark: at the bottom Brain-teases a difficult problem or question which teases the brain with its toughness (Make a special study of such compounds used by the poet) Tear-smel smelling of tears Aroma: here, the sweet smell of cooking Earthen oven: + mud chutha, The ‘ritual’ of cooking used to begin with giving the mud ‘oven’ a cow-dung ‘wash in traditional homes in the past. Snared: caught in a net or cage Scrubbing: washing the soot off the cooking vessels, laborious morning and evening chores for ‘women Populace: local inhabitants; the common people; massesSemblance: ‘outward appearance; resemblance, Mother Serious, Kitchen, I Met Walt Lilac: a shrub which has large sprays, of purple, vouomns fragrant flowers. The lilac is a recurring image Taio: in Whitman’s poetry; “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” is a famous poem by Whitman, ‘Atman: the Universal Soul, Absolute Reality or ‘Parabrahmam’ which Indian thought has projected over several millennia. 4.15 QUESTIONS Mother Serious 1, Write a note on the significance of the title of the poem Mother Serious, 2. Cite two instances of striking expressive devices from the poem. 3. ‘Ssh! She will hear! Be silent!” Comment on the use of the quotation marks. There is line that occurs twice in the poem. Why is the repetition significant? 5. Who is the speaker of the poem? Are there more speakers than one? 6. ~ Explain the line: “I breasted you in sleep” Kitchen 1, When was the kitchen ‘wonderful’ for the speaker of the poem? 2. What were the wisps of childhood shadows remembered in the poem? 3. What do you think of the expression “kitchenness"? 4. Comment on the line: “it’s no longer a play ground” 5. What is the positive suggestion made by the poet Vimala to save women? 6. Doyou consider the poem feminist? Give reasons for your answer. ‘IMet Walt Whitman Yesterday: An Interview 1 Evaluate Paniker as an innovator in form in the light of the present poem. 2. Critically analyse the poem, / Met Walt Whitman Yesterday. 3. How is Whitman portrayed as a ‘poet-patriarch’ and why? : 4. What are the peculiar situations in which an expatriate Indian finds himselffherself in the U.S., as described in the poem? 5. Bring out the paradoxes enumerated by Whitman in his questions. Mother Serious 6. Annotate the following: @ Iwill givea reply to your unasked question 87Poetry (ii) ) wv) Kitchen wo ww) ™ My ears like twin-boats carry the weight of ‘your words. How many figures? You ask me to tell them by name. They will give you a big desert on a platter. Do you know how real hell itis, ‘ears are alive? from the small change in the box of spices wwe bought ourselves sweets, played house, played at being cooks Her eyes ran out of tears long ago, Her hands are worn out with endless scrubbing How easily, they say, with a flick of the ladle ‘The cooking gets done. there’s a kitchen even in my dreams the smell of spices even in the jasmine. Let’s uproot these separate stoves. 1 Met Walt Whitman @ Gil) w 88 Casting his long shadow across Long Island the poet-patriarch was counting waves; each wave, a generation. Each bore the semblance of the American people. Allother limbs enveloped by the rocking mother sea. Wailing seagull. Lilacs blassoming forth. Frenzied drum beats. My friend — the voice had drawn near— look, he said, Columbus’ geographical error, history's gain. Paniker, I knew you would come again. | feigned surprise. ‘The rebirth of the human soul is nothing new to me....(¥) Why do your people get away when they meet your people as if they are not your people? (vi) Do you prefer whites to blacks? (vii) Have you assigned for others the ironical humour in buying machinery here talking all the while about the glorious heritage of your ancient past? (viii) Do you have in your land still those sages, who, ating only their silences, counsel their rulers? Have you gone in search of Himalayan caves, you, who hurry now to Niagara? (x) Atom or Atman- which of these do your scientists strive after? (xi) The glow of the Vedic culture of old; Emerson, Thoreau, Martin Luther King and 1 have cherished its sweetness, as countless others. 4.16 SUGGESTED READINGS Down to the Earth : An Anthology of Post-Modem Telugu Poetry with a foreword by Prof. Chekuri Rama Rao, Free Verse Front, Hyderabad. 1994, Voices on the Wing Telugu Free Verse 1985-1995. Edited, complied and translated by Dr V.V.B.Rama Rao, March 2000. More Voices on the Wing. Edited, compiled and translated by Dr V.V.B.Rama Rao, March 2001. Satchidanandan. K., Ed. Signatures. (First Revised Edition) Delhi: National Book Trust, 2003 (pp 194-196). I Met Walt Whitman Yesterday, by K.Ayyappa Paniker, translated by A.J.Thomas. -"Ayyappa Paniker’s Poetry: An Afterword”, in In the Sacred Navel of ‘Our Dreams: Essays on Ayyappa Paniker’s Poetry, Kottayam: Current Books, 2003. Ramakrishnan E.V. “Ayyappa Paniker’s Poetry”, in In the Sacred Navel of ‘Our Dreams: Essays on Ayyappa Paniker’s Poetry, Kottayam: Current Books, 2003. Ayyappa Paniker, K. / Can't Help Blossoming. Kottayam: Current Books, 2002. Mother Serious, Kitehen, I Met Walt Whitman Yesterday: A Interaview 89Poetry Days and Nights. Trivandrum, National Educational Research Centre, 2001 --Selected Poems of Ayyappa Paniker. Trivandrum, Moder Book Centre, 1986. Short History of Malayalam Literature, Trivandrum, Govtof Kerala, Dept. of Public Relations, 1998. Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. Delhi. Eurasia Publishing House, 196: