Across The Bridges (Award-Winning Collection of Punjabi Poems)

About the Book

Poetry has always been associated with a passion and with a potential to enter into the realm of one’s existence in order to disturb it, mould it while also simultaneously producing a certain aesthetic, a certain pleasure. The ornamental words in Harbhajan Halwarvi’s poems also does the same by creating a beautiful poetic world with a style which is simple yet arresting. Loneliness, love and nature are some of the themes which have found lucid expression in this Sahitya Akademi Award-winning collection Across the Bridges originally published as Pullan De Paar in Punjabi. Thus all that comes out through the language of Halwarvi ossifies into a realm some of which is unheard, some of which sounds strange, yet some of it gets deep down.

About the Author

Born in 1943, in Ludhiana, Punjab, Harbhajan Halwarvi is a poet and journalist. Author of books like Paun Udas Hai, Pighle Hoe Pal, Cheen Vich Kujh Din, Yadan Mither Desh Dian, Halwarvi is also the recipient of Shiromani Punjabi Patrakar Award from the Government of Punjab in 1990.

Pawan Gulati is a lecturer in English in Government Inservice Training Centre, Faridkot (Punjab). A prolific translator, he has translated from Punjabi into English the poems of Sukhvinder Kamboj, Manga Besi and Amarjit Grewal. He has also translated several works from English into Punjabi, including The Old Man and the Sea.

From the Translator

Translating poetry is considered impossible. This is indeed a fact. One cannot express exactly in another language the poetic emotions soaked in the mother tongue. Every poet has a distinct poetic idiom, choice of particular sign, metaphor, music, rhythm and rhyme-scheme. There is poetic craft as well that synergises one’s thoughts and spontaneous flow of emotions. The craft of translation can hardly reach that level. Besides, ghazal, a poetic form of Persian origin has a peculiar combination of content andmrom There is also a fine musical sense, at metrical craft and assembling of thoughts in a compact manner. To translate them in the same rhythm rhyme scheme, rhythm, music and metre may distort the essence of what a poet wants to convey. These limitations maybe noticed in this collection as you read. Please bear with it. These limitations are all mine.

Contents