The Poetry Lab
HomePoetsPoetryKaggaGitaVachanasProseBlogsJanapadaAboutContactThe Lab

Experiment 04 — What happens to a Vachana in translation

Vachanas

Notebook entry — spoken poetry from the 12th century. Twelfth-century Sharana verse — short, radical, unsparing — each vachana beside its English translation. I return to these whenever language feels heavy.

Akkamahadevi

About the Sharana
  • I dress up for my Linga, I

  • One husband for now? One for the

  • Keep your meals small, O’brother, keep it

  • O’ honey bees, O’ mango tree, O’

  • O’ Sister listen, I saw a dream

  • Hear me, You are my father; then,

  • The form became formless, when One with

  • The body, invoking the Linga, became One

Aydakki Lakkamma

About the Sharana
  • Can a dead body be flogged back

  • The body faces poverty; can the mind

Duggale

About the Sharana
  • Basavanna imparted knowledge as a Guru

Kalavve

About the Sharana
  • It is not that the spindle did not wind

Remamma

About the Sharana
  • You have a mirror; why don’t you look

Remmavve

About the Sharana
  • My temporal body is Basavanna

  • O’ brothers, understand the beauty of

  • All wives serve their husbands

  • Others’ husbands face the outside world

Translations by Krishna Joshi. Original works remain with their authors.Subscribe via RSS — get new work automatically
Edit with