Venustity — How Cecília Meireles translated India’s uniqueness into words
Venustity — feminine noun — 1. An attribute of what is venusto, of great beauty, grace, elegance; beauty.
There are several reasons why people choose India as their travel destination. Many people moved by their beliefs and faith, among them, many famous. I believe that the best-known example is Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Eat, Pray, and Love”. However, the most striking work for me was by Cecília Meireles, “Poemas Escritos Na Índia”.
“What seems to be the great charm of travel is going to meet, in a distant place, that has never been frequented, whose existence was not even known, some creature that the day before did not even know, and, suddenly, it turns out to be so friendly as childhood friends, and as forever as our soul. We all have these meetings, each according to his merits and his condition. (And we also discover our condition and our merits, although we can often come to doubt the logic of disagreeable privileges.) ”
For her: “The traveler’s dream is far away, at the end of the trip, where the imagined things live. The reality of the trip is at every point along the way, in the figures of the exchange rate and the weight of the bags, the passport stamps, and the vaccination certificates. So the pleasure of traveling is suddenly obscured under these small but relentless obligations that waste the time and sensitivity of the impatient traveler. ”
India (in Hindi: भारत, Bhārat, pronounced: [ˈbʱaːrət̪]; in English: India, pronounced: [ˈɪndiə]), officially called the Republic of India (in Hindi: भारत गणराज्य), is a country in South Asia. It is the second-most populous country, the seventh-largest in a geographical area and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded to the south by the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea to the west, and the Gulf of Bengal to the east, India has a 7,517 km long coastline. (Source: Wikipedia)
The culture of India is marked by a high degree of syncretism and pluralism. Indians have managed to preserve their previously established traditions, while absorbing new customs, traditions, and ideas from invaders and immigrants, while extending their cultural influence to other parts of Asia, mainly in Indochina and the Far East. Many Indian celebrations are of religious origin, although some are celebrated regardless of caste or creed. Some of the most popular festivals in India are Diwali, Holi, Durga Puja, Eid ul-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, Natal, and Vesak. In addition to these, the nation has three national festivals: Republic Day, Independence Day, and Gandhi Jayanti. Another series of festive days, ranging from nine to twelve days, is officially celebrated in each nation-state. Religious practices are an integral part of everyday life and are a matter of public interest. (Source: Wikipedia)
Cecília Meireles
Cecília Meireles baptized Cecília Benevides de Carvalho Meireles, (Rio de Janeiro, 1901–1964) was a poet, essayist, chronicler, folklorist, translator, educator and painter and is considered one of the most important voices in Portuguese language literature. At the age of 3, she lost her mother and never got to know her father, who died before her birth. Orphaned, she was raised by her maternal grandmother, Jacinta Garcia Benevides. In 1922 she married Fernando Correia Dias, an artist with whom she had three daughters. Her husband committed suicide in 1935 because of depression. Widowed, she remarried in 1940 to Heitor Vinícius da Silveira Grilo, professor and agronomist. In 1919, she published her first book of poems entitled Espectros. In 1934, Cecília organized the first children’s library in Rio de Janeiro. In 1939, the author was awarded the Olavo Bilac Poetry Prize granted by the Brazilian Academy of Letters for the book Viagem. Among the awards she received are also: Translation / Theater Award, granted by the São Paulo Association of Art Critics, in 1962; and, in the following year, she won the Jabuti Prize for Translation of Literary Works, for the book Poemas de Israel, granted by the Brazilian Book Chamber; in the year of her death, he also received the Jabuti of poetry for the book Solombra; and in 1965, the Machado de Assis Award, from the Brazilian Academy of Letters, for the set of her work. Her poetry has been translated into 8 languages and musicalized by names like Francisco Mignone, Lamartine Babo, and Fagner. Canção da Tarde no Campo, Ou Isto or Aquilo, Viagem, Criança, meu Amor, Poema dos Poemas and Never again are some of her books. (Source: Editora Global)
Among all her works, in my opinion, the most inspiring:
The book
SYNOPSIS: With verses that represent one of the most sublime points of Cecília Meireles’ poetic work, Poems written in India, which has just been relaunched by Global Editora, presents the profusion of experiences lived by the author on her trip to India in 1953. The mosaic cultural heritage of India is the guiding thread of poems, and with it, Cecília weaves with clarity and delicacy the poetry that overflows from the book. Written during her two-month stay in the country, in which she visited about 15 cities, these poems prove a deep epiphanic plunge by the author in the soul of the Indian people. These are verses that bring together places, people, and landscapes that end up becoming an integral part of effective cartography delicately drawn by Cecília Meireles, who sought to dispose of her strongest and most beautiful aspirations for the human transfigured into poetry. First published in 1961, in Rio de Janeiro, in Poems written in India, Cecília, in addition to exploring forms and images of everyday elements that marked her in her crossings across the country, also fixed with extraordinary sensitivity emblematic people and places, such as the pacifist leader Gandhi, the poet Rabindranath Tagore, the river Ganges and the Taj Mahal. (Global Publisher)
How to translate India into words?
As I am a translator and interpreter, I understand that translation carries a high degree of ethical responsibility. Translating requires intense concentration for long periods and attention to small details.
But how to translate feelings and sensations into words?
Cecília Meireles was a traveler. And to tell her stories, describe her adventures, put feelings into words, she chose poetry. Cecília Meireles’ poetry has always gone far beyond normality, even with the use of traditional literary techniques, her writings always marked her uniqueness.
The process for analyzing poetry comes down to examining form, metrics, theme, scenery and character, language, imagery, style, and the context of the poetry to understand it better.
Let’s travel together through the words of this fabulous author that impress, delight, fascinate …
CROWD
More than the waves of the wide ocean
and that clouds in high winds,
the crowd runs.
More than fire in dry forest,
bright, floating, worn dresses
successive slips,
between the pleats, the loops, the loose ends
of the scrambled turbans.
Where are these hasty steps going, Bhai?
What meeting? what call?
in what place? why?
Bhai, we who seem to stand still,
by chance we will also be,
without feeling it,
running, running like that, Bhai, so far,
without wanting to, without knowing where,
like water, cloud, fire?
Bhai, who is waiting for us, who will receive us,
who pity us,
blind, absurd, erratic,
and fall down the walls of time?
Cecília Meireles’ work mixes symbolism, Hinduism, Orientalism. In a letter to a friend she describes:
“When my love for India reached its peak, strange things happened to me. At night, in the middle of the dream, it seemed that I was detaching myself from my body, and walking in singular paths, with colorful atmospheres, where certain figures glided, crossed me, and I inhaled them, and so we communicated. All of this with rare appearances, and a very extraordinary sense. I saw and heard, I walked, I flew, I surprised … Lights, fires, music, rhythms. (…) ”
“Because traveling is looking at the path, living it in its full length and, if possible, in all its depth, too. It is surrendering to the emotion that each little thing contains or raises. It means exposing yourself to all experiences and all risks, not only of a physical nature — but, above all, of a spiritual nature. Traveling is another way of meditating. ”
HUMILITY
Sweeping the floor squatting
Humble.
Vergada.
Elderly teenager.
In the straw, in the dust
your old sari inscribes
sunshine messages
with the tenuous golden gallon.
Silver in the nostrils,
in the ears,
on the fingers,
on the wrists.
Foot bracelets.
Resplendent poverty.
All black:
fragile charcoal sculpture.
All black:
and full of sparks.
Sweep your own trail.
Pick the leaves from the garden
to the handfuls,
first;
an
per
an
Lastly.
Then it disappears,
shy,
like a bird in a tree.
Collect in the shade
your lights:
gold,
silver,
blue.
And its blackness.
Day into night.
Life being death.
The sound became silent.
DUST
No matter how much you shake your hair,
no matter how much I shake the dresses,
the dust of the paths lies in me.
The dust of beggars, in ash and rags,
from the dead gardens of thirst,
of the sad bazaars, with the silk withering in the sun,
the dust of matte marbles,
of the tumbled dome,
of the walls stripped of ornaments,
looted in vile time.
The dust of the meek buffalo around the huts,
from the wheels of cars, on tumultuous streets,
from the bottom of extinct rivers,
from inside the empty wells,
of uninhabited rooms, of dull mirrors,
the dust from shattered windows,
from the ruined balconies,
of backyards where little boys
they play naked between round hoses.
The dust from the crows’ wings
nourished with dust from the dead,
between the dust of heaven and earth.
Crows fed from the dust of the world.
From dust to dust.
THE SOUND OF INDIA
Maybe it’s the snake charmer!
But our eyes don’t reach those places
where your music comes from.(They are places of moonlight, of river, of night stone,
where the dream of the appeased world rests.)But maybe it’s him.
The snakes around will suspend your life,
raptured.(Oh! Lift us off the ground where we crawl!)
And far away our thinking about snakes rises
in the aerial blue music that the flute waves.For a moment, the universe, life
may just be this little sound
enigmaticbetween the still night
and our ear.
For Cecília Meireles:
“Every place I arrive is a surprise and a different way of looking at men and things. Traveling for me was never tourism. I never took pictures of an exotic country. Traveling is stretching the human horizon. ”
And for me, being in India is experiencing, feelings, sensations, states compassion, awareness, humility, tolerance, simplicity, femininity, spirituality, silence. All of this at the same time, in the middle of chaos. In India, I learned to live more spontaneously. Things don’t necessarily have to be programmed to work. And with each passing day, I feel more Indian! The bonds that unite us are sometimes impossible to explain. They connect us, challenge distance, time, and logic. Because some ties must simply exist. With a grateful heart, renewed energies, I brought many stories and insights into my luggage. India, the people and the experiences this country added to my life will always exist in my heart. Gratitude, beloved India!
Beloved India Transforms, liberates, heals. Nobody comes back like that. Have you ever been to India? Share your experience …
