What is this?

       Regarded as the 'Bhagavad Geeta' of Kannada language, "Mankutimmana Kagga" is among the most significant poetic works of modern Kannada literature. Published in 1943, the collection of 945 poems, each a quatrain, is a unique blend of the philosophical truths embodied in the Indian way of life and the raw realities of everyday living. Composed by the prolific late D.V.Gundappa, the work is a subtle celebration of the joy of living, the beauty of co-existence, the splendor of simplicity, the profoundness of pragmatism and much more.
          A work that rightly deserves its place amongst pristine gems like the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, the Diwan of Ghalib, the Prophet of Khalil Gibran; it is yet to reach inquisitive readers the world over. This blog attempting to translate the quatrains is a work of love by amateur admirers of the original.

          There are a few, but worthy, translations of the Kagga available for interested readers. But not many for the curious reader online. (Honorable exceptions like http://wordsofwisdom.in/mankutimmanakagga/ do exist!!) We here make an attempt at contributing to shrink that void. Our intention is to introduce the beauty, significance and profoundness of this amazing work to the inquisitive minds beyond the barrier of language. But that is not all. As Danilo Nogueira noted "Translating should be an enriching intellectual experience and you should end the job as a different person", we hope the journey of the making of this blog refines our intellect and soul.
         We understand the risks inherent in translating beautiful poetry. John Millington Synge says "A translation is no translation unless it will give you the music of a poem along with the words of it." We do not know to what extent our attempts of translation will do justice simultaneously to the lyrical beauty and to the miracle of meaning of the original. As Robert Frost expressed it best, "Poetry is what gets lost in translation". Yet we take the risk, because to live is to risk dying. And to take risk in an endeavor we love from our heart, it always pays off with the ecstasy and enrichment derived while the task is being done.
       If any reader gets enthralled by being introduced to DVG's masterpiece, all credit to the master himself. If the translations seem inadequate, which they are likely to seem because they are no match to the original, the fault is absolutely that of the amateur translators that we are!
         Bayard Taylor, translating Goethe's very famous poetic epic "Faust" from the German original to English writes - "... the white light of Goethe's thought has passed through the tinted glass of other minds, and assumed the coloring of each..." This danger of our own thoughts getting expressed in the translation overshadowing the original author's view point is the gravest error encountered in translations. We have tried not to let our tinted glasses color the pristine thoughts of the original. But at times, it is inevitable since translation is in a sense an extended interpretation. In case our interpretations deviate too much from the original, we request the learned readers to kindly point it out to us so that necessary corrections can be made.