Dears,
Below is the preface to the tri-lingual book "My Song" "Ma Chanson" "O Meu
Canto" containing a collection of poems by Dr.Manohar Rai SarDessai as his
originals in Konkani, English and French or renditions/translations in English,
French or Portuguese by the poet himself, Jorge de Abreu Noronha [Portuguese,
English], Anuradha Wagle [French], B. B. Borcar [English], Fr. Vasco do Rego
sj [English], Carmo Azavedo [Portuguese], Fr. Joaquim de Loiola Pereira, Laxman
Roa SarDessai [Portuguese] and Alberto de Noronha [Portuguese]. the preface,
writen by Maria Aurora Couto, is reproduced verbatim in its original English
text. the preface has also been translated and reproduced in French and
Portuguese in the book.
The collection of poems is a "must read" for every Goan*, who would do well
to read the original poems in Konkani that are published in both Roman and
Devanangri scripts as was the wont of the poet who discriminated not among his
readers and admirers ...who are a legion across generations, communities and
religions, in Goa and abroad!.
Mog asundi.
Miguel
*Goan = a person who loves Goa and has lived here at some point of time to
have imbued its spirit into his or her life and lifestyle. A Goan is a person
who is at peace with Nature ...long past the era of the Titans and other
demi-gods.
PREFACE
ManoharRai SarDessai, who captured the spirit and beauty of Goa ,
its landscape, its way of life, and the joys and vicissitudes of its
people, wrote primarily in Konkani, and was a Professor of French
Language and Literature. The poems presented in this slim volume
consist of poems written by Manoharbab in English and French and
translations of his Konkani poems into English by himself and by
others. The last section, in Portuguese, consists of poems translated
by various authors from Konkani.
The title, My Song, so aptly chosen for this selection of the poetry
of ManoharRai SarDessai captures the creative spirit of the artist
who gave voice both to the soul of Goa, and to every dimension of
being a Goan. He breathed our language, all its nuances, its
complexity, its music, its wit and its delicate grace. Jose Pereira
described him as the poet of Konkanism and Armando Menezes, a
poet of another generation, made a distinction between Indo
Portuguese poetry, Indo Anglian poetry, and Goan poetry. It is in
this last category of Goan poetry that Manoharbab's work belongs.
Known affectionately as Lok Kavi, "the People's Poet", and on 2
January 1966 named as "the Prince of Konkani Poets" Konknni
Kaviraj, during a competition amongst the Konkani Poets of Goa,
organized by the Clube Nacional (Pangim), ManoharRai SarDessai
achieved the popularity of an iconic figure during the Opinion Poll
of 1967 and the movement to establish Konkani as the official
language of Goa. During this period he composed poems that are now
anthems sung with joy and love, Sobit Amchem Goem, Zaiat zage, Goyam
tuzya moga khatir, Khoro Goenkar. His contribution to the development
of Konkani, which is incalculable, needs to be viewed in the context
of Portuguese colonial experience in Goa, a period of darkness and
near death for the mother tongue. Yet, the language lived on people's
tongues, as their mother tongue that has music in her blood and in
this blood, as Jose Pereira writes, "was lit the flame that still
glows in Konkani Song."
The title of this book, hence, is doubly apt as it encapsulates the
music of the language and the lyricism of Manoharbab's work. Both he
and Bakibab Borkar were among those patriots who rushed to Goa after
Liberation to fill an intellectual vacuum that existed in the
development of the Konkani language, and the whole field of higher
education. His A History of Konkani Literature (From 1500 to 1992)
is a comprehensive study of the evolution of the language and its
literature including little known facts about the origins of
Konkani, the influence of other languages, and the pioneering efforts
made to sustain the language against all odds. Equally, at Goa
University, he initiated and encouraged the publication of the
Konkani Encyclopaedia, having been the Chief Editor of the 1st of its
4 volumes.
He began his career as poet with long lyrics, where love of nature
predominates, although personal and social themes were also
important. His formative years in Paris deepened these insights,
broadened the vision, and further humanized the sensibility. Absence
from his beloved Goa and exposure to the cultural and political
vibrancy of a Paris over which Sartre and Camus towered,
illuminated every aspect of his creativity, and strengthened his
Konkanism. Poems written while away from Goa evoke an inexpressible
longing for the landscape and voices of home as in We are the World
Wanderers, Wherever I Go
., and The End of Exile, for a homeland of
rice fields, palm trees, sands and salt tang of the sea; they also
reveal a political perception that finally erupts into an anguished
cry of pain and self assertion:
Land of cattle and of pastures green
Thirsty is my Goa for a drop of milk
Fertile land, land of paddy fields,
.
My Goa sweats blood on the cross of the Portuguese.
In *Tujea mukhar Dusmana* :
O enemy, roll your eyes]
Fire cannon shots
But I shall never kneel before you.
If you wish to saw me
You will have to saw me erect
For, I shall never bow before you.
Some of Manoharbab's most powerful poems were written soon after
Liberation such as *Goa Is Free*:
Aiz amchem raj ailem
.
[Our day of freedom has dawned
]
Hindu-Kiristanv bhav
[Hindu and Christian brothers,]
Sogle ami ek zaum
[Let us march forward in unity as one.]
Amcho fuddar ghoddonv ami
[The goal today is to carve]
Hoch haves aiz.
[A future of our own.]
[Or again,]
Kallkhi raat sompli az
[The darkness of the night is dispelled,]
Mhojem, tujem ailem raj
[Your freedom and mine is born.]
Bhav-bhav ek zale
[Brother and brother are twinned in one]
Manddvichea sobit tirar.
[Along the beautiful banks of the Mandovi.]
These poems roused the spirit of Konkanism and Goanness to its most
intense; they were a call for action, and expressed a dream and a
vision for his people particularly during the Konkani Movement and
the campaign for the Opinion Poll. Indeed I find it difficult to
express in the English language the emotiveness of poems such as
Zaiat Zage, an inability to translate the power of Konkani words and
phrases which strike such a deep chord in every Goan, or what I feel
when I listen to Sobit Amchem Goem sung by the Goencho Nad. Today
when the Goan environment is at its most vulnerable, with careless
urbanization that is destroying the essential character of Goa, one
recalls the wistful imagery of Goem mhojem, a poem in which
Manoharbab evokes the fragile beauty of his homeland, as also "Leave
me an open sky".
In his Nobel Lecture (1970) Alekxandr Solzhenitsyn made the point
that literature together with language protects the soul of a nation
and that the intervention of power violates its heart and slashes its
memory to pieces: "The nation ceases to be mindful of itself, it is
deprived of its spiritual unity, and despite a supposedly common
language, compatriots suddenly cease to understand one another." More
than any Goan writer, Manoharbab understood this tragic reality and
worked hard to create a unified Goan consciousness that could sustain
and rebuild a fractured Goan psyche. His exposure to Europe, to the
ideals of liberalism and socialism during his student days in Paris,
all this experience was transmuted within the framework of his Goan
rootedness and his vision for a free Goa.
Manoharbab's use of the Konkani language cut across religious
barriers, and was easily accessible to all Goans. Indeed he made a
special effort to reflect the composite, cohesive nature of Goan
society in all his work. For instance, in his moving poem Konknnicho
Ulo (1966), the battle cry for Konkani is uttered passionately by
evoking both temple and church, dhalos and mandos. More poignantly,
the poem starts with " the first call (sound of the Vedic mantras)"
and ends as a call "hidden in the last cry of Christ on the cross.".
He embodied a truly Goan cosmopolitanism, liberal, so deeply
spiritual that he seems to have eschewed anger, bitterness,
frustration, and despair from his consciousness while committing
himself to the whole process of living in harmony with man and
nature in a most creative way. His life and his work exemplified
veglench munxaponn, which, Bakibab Borkar defined as a special talent
of the Goan personality.
Manoharbab's spirituality and aversion to ritual and pomp is
expressed in poems such as Mhozo Dev and Prayer. His collection of
poems Zaio Zuio was very influential and set a trend among young
writers who were drawn to the short verse form which condensed
thought and emotion in an enchanting rhythm. This collection was
followed by Pisollim for which he was awarded the Sahitya Akademi
Award. His short poems have sometimes been described as aphorisms.
Such a description misses the depth of wisdom within a tight
structure, their wit, and the rhythm of the spoken word. This
selection of his work illustrates his talent as a linguist. He
composed poems in French, translated some of his Konkani poetry into
English, the plays of Moliere, and the writing of Romain Rolland
into Konkani. His most recent work was a translation of Abbé Faria's
De la cause Du Sommeil Lucide into English.
Although Manoharbab was sadly aware of the moral, political and
social decline in Goan society, he refused to be pessimistic, but
found comfort and hope in the creative energies of his grandchildren
through whom he could see a vision of Goa of the future. Indeed,
Manoharbab's unique gift was his ability to reach out to all
generations. He made a special effort to communicate and excite the
imagination of children, with several volumes of poetry which are now
part of the mythical world of Goan children. These verses have the
pace of ditties, the wit and rhyme of folk song and nursery rhymes
and are now so extensively used that they have passed into the folk
tradition of Goa and many are not aware that they are composed by
Manoharbab. Most importantly, they are embedded within a deeply Goan
consciousness, its waters, its skies, fields, fruit and foliage, its
seasonal changes and occupations thereby sensitizing the child to
its environment.
In the last two years after the Konkani daily Sunaprant was enlarged,
he contributed poems every day made up of four short lines. These
were laid in a diagram of a circle within a square and called Tikli,
a sort of honey drop of sweetness and wisdom. He was asked many a
time if he was inspired by the Japanese haiku , but then this could
not be the case since he had created his own very special form of
condensed thought, emotion and wisdom, complex yet utterly simple,
evocative yet memorable even to a child.
The music of his words, the glow of his humanism, the humility of his
great mind and heart will always remain with us. It will not be
difficult in the perspective of the eight decades of Manoharbab's
life to give him pride of place in the history of our literature and
culture, and his role in giving a definite identity to Goa in the
mainstream.
An Appendix at the end of this volume offers the readers a glimpse
of Manoharbab's forceful yet self-effacing personality and the
subtlety of his thought, as reflected in his patriotic poem Otthra
Jun. The poem is reproduced in its original form in Konkani, followed
by its translations into the three European languages into which the
volume is divided.
The volume would not have been possible but for the wholehearted
support of the family of ManoharRai SarDessai, represented by his
son, Umesh, who provided all the text and illustrations, and that of
Mr Percival Noronha, who, in his capacity as Secretary of the Indian
Heritage Society (Goa Chapter), undertook to publish it. The support
and collaboration of many individuals needs to be acknowledged.
Jorge de Abreu Noronha and Fernando do Rego who first mooted the idea
pursued the project with dedication and enthusiasm, with the former
also taking charge of coordinating the texts in the three languages
and translating a great deal into Portuguese. The translators of
individual poems are indicated in the text. The selection benefited
from advice from many quarters, the willing co-operation of Dr
Anuradha Wagle of the Dept of French of Goa University for
translations into French and Melisse do Rego and Amilcar da Costa who
have designed the covers.
Aldona Goa Maria Aurora Couto
August 15, 2007
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