FOREWORD

– Dr. Supantha Bhattacharyya, Dept. of English, Hislop College, Nagpur.

My first engagement with Suresh Bhat’s poetry was in my youth. My sister, a trained classical
singer, would often perform numbers like Mendichya panavar and Malvun taak deep set to
brilliant music by the incomparable Hridaynath Mangeshkar. Having studied Marathi at school
and being familiar with many landmarks of Marathi literature, I was, even then, struck by the
beauty and simplicity, the striking imagery and the lyricism of his poetry.

During my university days, I would often be witness to the sensation his appearance would
cause during literary meets (the other two celebrities of Nagpur – the poet Grace and the
playwright Mahesh Elkunchwar – also used to create the same effect). I was fortunate enough
to have met him a few times in the company of my two gurus: Dr. Jayant Paranjape and Prof.
Elkunchwar, although I was too tongue-tied to contribute to the brilliant conversation which
ensued at every encounter of these titans. Later, Prof. Dhananjay Jog (the then Head of the
Department of English at Hislop College where) would often clarify the nuances of his poetry,
although his preference ran more for modern masters like Mardhekar and Grace.

When I read Bhat’s collections like Elgar, Zanjhaavaat, Kaflaa etc, I realized that there is more
to his poetry than mere romantic ghazals – although his ground-breaking efforts in the genre of
the Marathi ghazal can never be over-emphasized. Here was a poet who was not afraid of
voicing his angst at the prevailing socio-cultural inequities, who denounced caste
discriminations and exploitation without sounding shrill or opinionated. Bhat impeccably
demonstrated that it is possible to write hard-hitting ideological poetry without compromising
in the least on literary aesthetics.

Having dabbled into translation myself, I am aware of the unique difficulties of translating a
work from a bhasha language into a European one. Discovering the exact cultural-linguistic
equivalence of a word or expression proves to be exasperatingly difficult, if not downright
impossible. And when it comes to poetry, the complexity level simply burgeons because of the
numerous connotations and fine nuances. It is in this context that one must commend the
efforts of Dr. Minakshi Ingle. She has made a very judicious selection from the poet’s wide-
ranging oeuvre and tried her utmost to retain the essential spirit of the originals, certainly no
mean achievement. This translation, the very first of Bhat’s poetry, shall no doubt be a major
step in making it more accessible to a pan-Indian, if not global readership.