I believe it is only apt to clarify in this note that new poetic sensibility is in no way co-related to the age of a poet, but is a product of her/his poetic outlook and awareness. My project ‘Malayalam Poetry in Translation’ is an attempt to showcase the work of some of the finest poets writing in Malayalam. In fact, as a translator, I believe it becomes the need of other languages to grow and adapt to the new shapes of meaning that a poem carves for itself. A poem that is able to mend its language and meaning, and blend into the issues of our time will break the barriers of language eventually. By attributing her loneliness and alienation to a natural phenomenon, she is trying to find solace, at last here she has a companion to share her feelings.įor an in-depth understanding of poetry, go to this link.( Translator’s Note: The finest of contemporary Malayalam poetry represents the latest poetic sensibility that is on view today. The poet discusses the plight of the woman by comparing it with the rain which comes at night. The above lines may remind us of the routine life of a woman who has to put an act on the face while suppressing her tears as she does not have any other choice. Your hurry and your putting on an act Rathrimazha, Rain at Night She is devoid of her identity and made to suffer by a social system which cannot understand her. The image of the woman who is frozen into a stone, even forgetting to weep, and experiencing loneliness is a clear statement on the pathetic state of woman in a patriarchal society. Loneliness is a predominent theme in the poem.Īlone, slowly freeze into a stone. The “deeply diseased” poor heart maybe the individual who had to suffer because of the corrupted societal interventions. Rain has been portrayed as the “…pensive daughter of the dusky night.”ĭeeply diseased? Rathrimazha, Rain at Night While sitting in a room, suddenly it rained and the author got sudden surge of emotion and started writing it.) Throughout the poem, the feelings of melancholy and loneliness predominate. (Sugathakumari, in a number of interviews, had talked about the situation of writing the poem. The speaker, obviously a woman, talks about her companion, the rain in the poem. The poem can be read in a feminist perspective as well. The rain has been the companion of the woman in all these different emotional stages. We can see different emotional states of the woman in the poem, youth, love, melancholy, mental agony, disease, loneliness and so on. The shifting moods of the persona parallel with that of the rain at night. The speaker in the poem identifies herself with the rain at night. Read the English translation of the poem “Rathrimazha” here. The poem is written in six sections, but does not have a regular stanzaic form. The poem Rathrimazha (from the collection Rathrimazha) has been translated to English by her own sister and literary critic H. Listen Venugopal’s rendering of the poem “Krishna nee enne ariyilla Major poems include Rathrimazha, Ambalamani, and Manalezhuth. Though Sugathakumari’s poems can be seen as a continuation of the Romantic Poetry, she has equally raised social issues, and mythical themes in her poetry. In the 1960s, the writers including ONV Kurup, Sugathakumari, MV Vishu Narayanan Namboothiri etc wrote poems which have romantic tendencies. Sugathakumari belongs to the Romantic tradition of poetry which began with Kumaran Asan and flourished with Changambuzha Krisha Pillai. Listen Kavalam Sreekumar’s rendering of the poem “Rathrimazha” here Her poems such as “Rathrimazha” (Rain-at-night) and “Krisha neeyenne ariyilla”(Krishna, you know me not) are very popular. The people of Kerala know her both as a poet and a fighter who involves in the struggles to save the environment and nature of Kerala. Daughter of eminent Malayalam poet Bodheswaran and Sanskrit scholar Karthiyayini Amma, Sugathakumari is a prominent voice in the contemporary Malayalam literature.