The subject of translating Nepali poetry into English struck me as a matter of interest among poets and writers when I received an invitation from the Yugendra-Laxmikanta International Translation Trust to attend a programme in Siliguri, India, on January 20, 2024. Translation is the most familiar practice I have been dealing with, both at the university and outside, but this invitation prompted me to reflect on our translation practices. This article addresses that topic cursorily.

The practice and lure of translating Nepali poetry into English covers about 70 years. It began in earnest with the initiative of the eminent poet Laxmi Prasad Devkota (1909-1959), who had a good command of the English language. An editor of the bilingual poetry magazine Indreni, Devkota said this in the editorial: “The present translations are in English, because of its extensive use in India, especially in the Deccan, and the different parts of Asia and the world” (1956: 174). Devkota introduced the concept of translating poetry into English in the mid-fifties of the last century. In several magazine issues, he translated some of the major poems of his contemporaries including Balakrishna Sama, Madhav Ghimire, Kedarman Vyathit, and Siddhicharan Shrestha. Devkota was evoking the power of the English language that could be acquired by means of education in our part of the world.

One other instance of the power of poetry in English can be seen in the translation of the poems of King Mahendra (1920-72). A group of Indian scholars of the Nityananda Society found the monarch's poetry compiled in his anthology Usaiko Lagi as an easy way to highlight the Hindu associations of the king whose poems "in sentiment, cadence paradox and symbol… are hooked into the core of Kashmiri Pandit School". The purpose of this statement in the prefatory text is clear. In the preface of the book titled King Mahendra the Poet (1963?), the writer of the book, YG Krishnamurti, writes, "King Mahendra shines as a traditional poet and a modern king." Krishnamurti has translated several poems of the king into English and included in this glossy tome printed expensively but produced carelessly without the date of publication and other details. This book was given to me in the early seventies by Gokulchandra Shastri, the late professor of Sanskrit at Trichandra College and a staunch monarchist.

The lure and power of the English translation of Nepali poetry that we see here is different from the power Devkota saw in his Indreni experiment. Dramatist and poet Balakrishna Sama translated his own long Nepali poem Mrityupachiko Abhivyanjana as "Expression after death", published in 1972 by Sajha Prakashan. Nepal Academy published translations of representative Nepali poetry into English by several hands under the title Seven Poets (1975). I do not have space here to discuss the history of the subject, but I want to mention one collection of translated poems written by poets of different generations with a little patriotic flavour: The Voice of Nepal.

My impression is that the craft of translating Nepali poetry into English never appears to be carefully planned or executed. The somewhat anarchist spirit of Devkota to bring Nepali poetry to the notice of the world appears to be the enduring spirit of the people of different generations. But we should remember that poet Devkota combined mission, spirit, skill and efficiency in his work, although it was a small attempt that did not continue much longer.

Translation of poetry into English has been a favourite practice in South Asia for three reasons. First, with English being the global language, translating your native poetry into English is thought to take you to a wide audience worldwide. Second, you would be able to evoke a sense of power—the English language continues to be equated with power. The third reason is related to making the best use of the contact zone, which is an interesting topic for discussion for academic and pragmatic reasons. I want to address some of these and other features behind the great enthusiasm for the translation of poetry into English in Nepal to begin with.

Growing interest

There is a growing interest among Nepali poets to translate their works into English, for the sphere of literary contacts and the audience is widening beyond the South Asian region. Compared with fiction, readers of poetry are limited, and poetry books are not sold like “hotcakes” as fictional works often do. I experienced that in Edinburgh, a literary city in the United Kingdom, where I was a student towards the late seventies of the last century. I knew several poets and attended poetry readings where a few copies of the collections of the concerned poets would be sold among the people of the close circles. I remember being guided by a poet to the poetry bookshops her friends ran. They were mostly second-hand books. The number of poetry books in such bookshops would be small. I am alluding to the English language poetry books here.

Regarding the English language poetry books related to movements of the sixties and a little earlier, I have memories of the bookstore that sold a few poetry books. That was my experience in Kathmandu when a group of friends, the “hippies”, started a bookshop on Freak Street. Researcher Prawash Gautam came to talk to me about my recollections of this bookstore run by some of my friends whom I knew from my hippie associations in the late sixties and early seventies in Kathmandu. Prawash has published a very interesting article in this newspaper (12 December 2018) under a long title: "How a used bookstore in Kathmandu’s Jhochhen captured the spirit of the hippie movement". Among the poets I found and picked up from that store were the Beat Generation poets Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snider and Gregory Corso. Some hippie poets who remained in Kathmandu and became friends were Ira Cohen (American poet and publisher) and Angus McLise (American drummer and poet).

The impact of English language poetry books on Nepali poets is limited. But the interest in writing and translating poetry in English is growing as a very creative and meaningful endeavour.