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New Delhi: Cultural and
linguistic boundaries blurred as Rabindranath Tagore's poetry was
set to a dance and Hungarian poetry composed by national icons
like Endre Ady was recited in Hindi and in Hungarian. All this
when 15 poets and writers from the two countries assembled here
under the "Poetry Across Cultures" to read and exchange over
musings of love, cadence and friendship.
As the "Poetic Cadences in Rhythm with Dance" session progressed
at the Hungarian Institute of Information and Cultural Centrelate
last month, it was proof that diplomacy has many colours.
To this end, the emergence of soft power as a potent tool of
diplomacy is redefining poetry as the new people-to-people contact
between India and the world.
"Poetry Across Cultures", a non-profit organisation of poets and
prose-writers, uses poetry as a tool to promote cultural
understanding between India and countries like Finland, Romania,
Russia, Serbia, the US, Portugal, France and Italy.
The organisation - led by the faculty and students of Kamla Nehru
College and white-collared professionals with a flair for
literature - usually ropes in the diplomatic missions of European
countries out to reach out to poets across continents.
"We try to diminish the dichotomy between the east and the west
through an exchange of poetry and different poetic voices with
similar expressions. It is a step towards using poetry to expose
young writers, poets and the students to poetry of other
cultures," Rita Malhotra, the founder of Poetry Across Cultures,
told IANS.
Tibor Kovacs, director of the Hungarian Institute of Information
and Cultural Centre, said: "Most people are interested in poetry
because it is easy to understand."
"The Hungarian government has launched a literary exchange
programme, 'Publishing Hungary', to translate Hungarian poetry
into foreign languages and poetry of other countries into
Hungarian. We are looking for contemporary English and Hindi
poetry from India for translation into Hungarian," Kovacs told
IANS.
"Soft diplomacy is very important now," he added.
"Universal Poetry" - another initiative - has been bringing Indian
and foreign poetry on the same platform to promote literary
exchanges for the last three years.
The organisation on Sept 20 featured noted Indian poet Ashok
Vajpeyi at a poetry exchange between Indian and Swiss poets at the
Swiss Embassy.
Poet Sameer Kakkar, the founder of "Universal Poetry", says the
objective was "to create an international community of poetry
through cross-cultural readings and workshops".
"Poetry is a human mirror. It tells us how the other cultures
think and how they feel," Kakkar told IANS.
The British Council's "Indo-Wales Writers' Chain" has added to the
growing relationship between Britain and India.
Last year, Welsh poets Sian Melangell Dafydd, Robert Minhinnick,
Twm Morys and Eurig Salisburg travelled to India to collaborate
with Indian poets K. Satchidanandan, Anamika, Sampurna Chatterji
and Anitha Thampi.
Recalls Sampurna Chatterjee in the BBC Wales Arts blog: "We were
sitting on the rocks by a river. Twm is speaking about himself,
his life and how he came to poetry, talking about listening to the
clack of keys on his father's typewriter as he lay on a sunny wall
as a young lad... Like sharp unpredictable flurries of wind and
leaf, revelations arise amidst us." It sets off the poetry chain
in motion.
This year, a bunch of Indian and Welsh poets will meet again in
November to add to the growing Indo-British poetry coffers.
Irish poets have been visiting India to collaborate with their
Indian counterparts supported by the Embassy of Ireland in India.
Exchanges between new Indian and American poets are growing with
more and more university students from the US travelling to India
to "work on traditional genres of Indian poetry".
The Washington-based literary cafe, "Bus Boys and Poets", known
for combining poetry, literature and good food at the Friday night
readings for coloured poets, hosted a group of young arts
protagonists and writers from the developing world, including from
India.
"We would welcome new poets from India to read their poetry at our
cafe...India has a rich history of poetry," cafe owner Anas "Andy"
Shallal, a migrant from Baghdad, told IANS from Washington.
Poetry is also forging new links in South Asia with the growing
number of "mushairas" or reading sessions hosting poets from the
country, Pakistan and Afghanistan in the native languages aided by
several vernacular literature academies, including the government.
(Madhusree Chatterjee can be contacted at madhu.c@ians.in)
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