Poems of Aduri Satyavathi Devi
Poem-12
The Torn Emerald Canvas
Telugu Original: Aduri Satyavathi Devi
English Translation: Raamateertha
Perching on the yonder hill side greenery
As if busy composing music to a new song,
With awakening roulades,
Those birds becoming musical organs,
In pairs drenching in the snow ‘Mushaira’
Used to fill my morning walk
With an amalgam of emotive raga.
Their song penetrating into the being,
Activated always the sap-chords of life.
After a spirited sport of catch-me-if-you-can,
Me charging ahead and they withdrawing further,
They used to toss me for sure
Into the halcyon days of childhood.
At every dawn I used to find a pack of confectionery,
And for the tomorrow,
There always remained a sweet dream.
When cumulus pitch-blacks crowded the canopy
And jets came down attackingly,
Folding the winds closer,
Beaks engaged in preening,
Becoming special editions of wanderlust
They used to conduct many a news conference.
To those outstretched branches of the tree
As if imparting wisdom in multi-lingual mode
They used to chirp in unison.
In the times of life drying up
And dropping down like a powdery remnant
Bereft of sanitized purity,
That song of unification
Becoming a hydrous spread beneath my heart,
Used to caress me till recent days.
Today, all that became a highway,
Setting the stage for a modern industrial complex.
That canvas of pristine beauty is ravaged and pulled apart.
The roots wrenched out from the comforting bowels of earth
Are wailing there, mouths dry.
The last season of rains went amiss,
So also, the spring.
Now in my run too, diverted from the umbrage of trees,
The rhythm and the beat of Nature is lost.
*****
Telugu Original : ‘Chinigipoyina Patchala Canvas’
Aduri Satyavathi Devi was born in Guntur in the year 1948 and settled in Visakhapatnam after marriage in 1969. She began her literary career as a lyricist at the age of 13. She wrote a variety of lyrics numbering about 300 — light, classical, devotional, patriotic, children’s and others. More than 50 songs of Satyavati Devi were broadcast over All India Radio. Eventually she made forays into various other literary genres like Poetry, Short story, Essay, Radio Play, Musical Feature, Books, Film reviews, Forewords etc..She created a substantial corpus of poetry with more than 180 poems included in 4 anthologies of poetry. She received accolades from readers, scholars, critics and litterateurs for her sensitive rendering of poems. She participated in many Poetry Meets, Festivals conducted by All India Radio, Doordarshan and the Sahitya Akademi. She was widely translated into English and Hindi. Some of the translations appeared in renowned journals like Indian Literature (English), and Samakaaleen Bharateeya Saahitya (Hindi).
She published her first volume of lyrics Vennello Venugaanam in 1988. Her first volume of poetry Rekkamudavani Raagam was published in 1992 followed by Jalapaata Geetam in 1997 and Veyirangula Velugu Raagam in 2006. Hindi translation of Rekkamudavani Raagam came out in 2008 as “Pankh an Modnevaalaa Raag” and a miscellany of various facets of her literary endeavour Vennela Paarijaataalu was published posthumously in Dec 2008. She received many prizes and awards for her literary pursuits and accomplishments like STVD Kalasamithi Award for Rekkamudavani Raagam in 1993, and Telugu University’s “Pratibha Puraskaram” as “Best Poet” in 1994, “Krishna Sastry Award” from Andhra Lalita Kala Samithi (Secunderabad) in 1998, UNESCO Literary Award in 2000, and “Ramavruksha Benipuri Janma Sataabdi Sammaan” from Jaimuni Academy (Panipat) in 2002. An English translation of her poem, “Veyirekkala Pavuram” (Myriad Winged Bird) has been included in the syllabus of English texts in the poetry section of Degree year students by the Common Core syllabus Committee in AP from 2008.