उमरखय्यामकृत रुबाया, द्राक्षकन्या, गीत-रुबायत...Omar Khayyam, Edmond Dulac, Madhav Julian and My Father

आज माझ्या वडलांचा ८५वा वाढदिवस आहे. #GopalDuttKulkarni85'

EDWARD FITZGERALD, ‘OMAR KHAYYÁM: The Astronomer-Poet of Persia’, c1859: “For whatever Reason, however, Omar, as before said, has never been popular in his own Country, and therefore has been but scantily transmitted abroad.”

 Richard Eaton, ‘India in the Persianate Age: 1000-1765’, 2019: “…The big breakthrough, however, came in 1582 when Akbar, with the apparent aim of promoting a political culture that would arch over the Mughal realm’s diverse religious and cultural communities, established Persian as the official language. It was to be used at every level of the Mughals’ bureaucracy, from the imperial capitals down to the most remote settlements in the rural hinterland. Within a few generations, India had become a major centre of the Persian-speaking or -reading world. An Italian who travelled through Gujarat in 1623 considered that in Mughal territories Persian was more commonly used than vernacular languages. By 1700 India was probably the world’s leading centre for the patronage of Persian literature and scholarship, with an estimated seven times more people literate in Persian than in Iran…”

Orhan Pamuk, ‘My Name is Red’, 1998:

“…Every picture serves to tell a story,” I said. “The miniaturist, in order to beautify the manuscript we read, depicts the most vital scenes: the first time lovers lay eyes on each other; the hero Rüstem cutting off the head of a devilish monster; Rüstem’s grief when he realizes that the stranger he’s killed is his son; the love-crazed Mejnun as he roams a desolate and wild Nature among lions, tigers, stags and jackals; the anguish of Alexander, who, having come to the forest before a battle to divine its outcome from the birds, witnesses a great falcon tear apart his woodcock. Our eyes, fatigued from reading these tales, rest upon the pictures. If there’s something within the text that our intellect and imagination are at pains to conjure, the illustration comes at once to our aid. The images are the story’s blossoming in color….”

 श्री. के. क्षीरसागर, 'उमर खय्यामची फिर्याद', "उमर खय्यामची फिर्याद", १९६१-१९७५:
"पण पहा ! लाडके ! आकाशात उगवत असलेला चंद्र आपला शोध करीत आहे ! यापुढील काळात, किती वेळा तरी उगवल्यानंतर तो आपल्यापैकी एकाचा शोध करील ! - पण व्यर्थ !"

 Artist: Edmund Dulac (1882-1953)

 प्रा श्री. के. क्षीरसागर यांचे एकेकाळी विद्यार्थी असलेले, माझे वडील गोपाल दत्त कुलकर्णी यांच्या Edward Fitzgerald लिखित 'The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam', १८५९ चा मराठी अनुवाद 'गीत-रुबायत', १९६५च्या सुमारास प्रसिद्ध झाला . 

माधव जूलियन यांनी रुबायतचे  दोन अनुवाद केले. 

पहिला मूळ फारसी वरून केलेला "उमरखय्यामकृत रुबाया" प्रसिद्ध झाला १९२९ साली. त्याबद्दल त्यांना ज्या एका मुंबईच्या पारशी गृहस्थाने आर्थिंक मदतीचे आश्वासन दिले होते, त्याने खाका वर केल्या. (आज मला वाटते त्या गृहस्थाला पुस्तकाची निर्मिती आवडली नसेल काय? कारण तो म्हणे चित्र संग्राहक पण होता, त्याला Edmond Dulac यांच्या सारख्यांची चित्रे असलेले रुबाया अपेक्षित असेल!)

शिवाय तो अनुवाद मराठी रसिकांना फारसा आवडला नाही. त्या बद्दल माधवराव लिहतात:   

 (पृष्ठे : १९२-१९३, 'माधव जूलियन', ले: गं. दे. खानोलकर, १९५१-१९६८)

नऊ दहा ओळीत माधव जूलियन जे विश्लेषण करतात, ह्यावरून त्यांच्या विद्ववत्तेची, फारसी आणि मराठी भाषेवरच्या पकडीची, उमर खय्यामच्या अभ्यासाची आपल्याला चुणूक दिसते. 

पुढे माधव जूलियन यांनी सुद्धा Edward Fitzgerald चा अनुवाद १९३१ साली 'द्राक्षकन्या' म्हणून प्रसिद्ध केला. 

वि वा शिरवाडकरांनी सुद्धा उमर खय्याम यांच्या वर लिहिले आहे, वाङ्मय शोभा , दिवाळी १९५७:

 

जेन रसेल, अमेरिकन चित्रपट अभिनेत्री आणि हॉलीवूडची १९४०, '५०च्या दशकांतील आघाडीची सेक्स सिम्बॉल...Jane Russell@100

#JaneRussell100
June 21 2021 is 100th birth anniversary of  Jane Russell

 

जी ए कुलकर्णी, जुलै २८ १९५५:

"…हत्तिणीचे चित्र काढताना जेन रसेलचे चित्र निघणे हा लेखकाचा पराभव आहे…" 

('जी.एं. ची निवडक पत्रे, खंड २', १९९८, पृष्ठ १४)

 

The  book is copiously marked with foot notes by the editors almost on every page. Every time GA refers to something that has not been discussed earlier, there is a footnote for it. For instance, on page 14, 'Grapes of Wrath' is commented upon.

But for some reason, Ms. Russell does not get a footnote.

Was it because editors assumed every reader knew about her? I don't think it's quite true because by 1998, Russell was already history and had not become a legend like Marilyn Monroe among Marathi speaking people at least. 

 

Or was it just widely prevalent snobbishness among Marathi literati that perhaps a Hollywood star and sex symbol (for me Ms. Russell was a competent actor too) from the past was not in the same league as John Steinbeck's book and hence not worth a comment?

To compensate for that oversight, I have tried writing that missing footnote: जेन रसेल, अमेरिकन चित्रपट अभिनेत्री आणि हॉलीवूडची १९४० आणि '५०च्या दशकांतील आघाडीची सेक्स सिम्बॉल, जन्म १९२१, मृत्यू २०११

 1942

by George Hurrell

Western Literature Starts in the Iliad with a Bloody Plague!

 Mary Beard, The New Yorker, May 2021:

“…One person’s civilization is another person’s barbarism; history teaches that civilization is always the insiders’ view of themselves. As for the pandemic, rather than “civilization,” let’s say it’s perhaps challenged the role of “arts and culture.” There’s been a bit of a blindness to those things—a sense that what was really keeping us on the road was, of course, the work of scientists, who were working on the vaccine and on better treatment. And in no way would I like to suggest that that wasn’t important. But people tend to think that music, literature, and so on is icing on the cake.

But the arts are essential. They help you understand what you are experiencing. Look at ancient history. Where does Western literature start? It starts, in the “Iliad,” with a bloody plague!…”

 

Homer, ‘The Iliad’, Book I, translation by Peter Green, 2015:

 

“…So when they had gathered and were all assembled together,

swift-footed Achilles stood up and spoke among them:

“Son of Atreus, I think we shall now be driven into retreat

and forced back home, even should we escape with our lives,60

if indeed war and plague together are to crush the Achaians!

Come, then, let us find and question some priest or diviner,

or even a reader of dreams, since a dream too is from Zeus,

who might explain to us Phoibos Apollo’s deep anger—

Is it a missed vow that riles him? Were some oxen not sacrificed?—65

Maybe, catching the savor of lambs and unblemished goats,

he’ll be willing to give us relief, call off this onslaught.”…“

Peter Jones, ‘Eureka! : Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Ancient Greeks But Were Afraid to Ask’, 2014:

“…We have no idea when Sophocles’ Oedipus Turannos was performed. But we do know that, even though Aristotle made it his ‘perfect’ example of a tragedy, it did not in fact win the first prize.

The story centres on the uncovering by Oedipus of the true nature of events occurring many years earlier. The play opens with a plague that has struck the city of Thebes, and the Delphic oracle tells Oedipus that he must find the killer of Laius, king of Thebes before Oedipus was made king (Oedipus was now married to the bereaved queen Jocasta).

Oedipus sets about the task with a will, but as the truth slowly emerges, two things become clear: not only did Oedipus kill Laius, but in doing so he had killed his own father and then married his own mother, in the process fulfilling oracles of long ago. Jocasta commits suicide and Oedipus blinds himself. The play ends with Oedipus being led away into the palace.

However unlikely the actual plot, it is so masterfully constructed by Sophocles that one is swept away by it – a great man, determined to reveal the guilty man behind an event happening long ago, finding that every move he makes points the finger of guilt more and more clearly at himself, with even more horrific consequences for his mother and for his surviving daughters by her, Antigone and Ismene.

It is Oedipus’ determination not to flinch from facing this increasingly dreadful truth about himself that makes him such a powerfully tragic figure.”

 

 "Plague Arriving" by Frederick Simpson Coburn, 1909

जी. एंचा पहिला यात्रिक..."मूळ कथा कोणाच्या वगैरे काहीच आढळत नाही"...Henry van Dyke's 'The Story of the Other Wise Man', 1895

पुरषोत्तम धाक्रस , 'सिंहा' वलोकन, 'आकाशफुले : जी. ए. कुलकर्णी', तिसरी आवृत्ती ', २०१०:

"...'यांत्रिक'.... हे केवळ अनुवाद आहेत एवढेच कळते. मूळ कथा कोणाच्या वगैरे काहीच आढळत नाही..."

माझ्या ब्लॉग वरची मार्च १२ २०१६ ची पोस्ट पहा : 

"...After little research I found out that,  GA's Marathi story is a translation of Henry van Dyke's (1852-1933) short novel 'The Story of the Other Wise Man', 1895. 

Sadly and surprisingly, Henry van Dyke is not even mentioned any where! The credit is normally given like this: 'Original novella : Henry van Dyke, Translator: G. A. Kulkarni' ( 'मूळ लघुकादंबरी: हेन्री व्हॅन डाईक, अनुवादक: जी ए कुलकर्णी)

Also note that van Dyke died in 1933. Therefore, his story was not in public domain in India in October 1960!... "

 Artist: John Flanagan, 'The Story of the Other Wise Man', 1920 , public domain