A lab for language, poetry & ideas
Kannada · Hindi · English
Kannada & Hindi poetry carried
into English.
by a Polymer Engineer who couldn’t stop wondering what survives translation.
A growing archive of my English translations — verse, prose and commentary, always shown beside the original padya, gadya and bhashya.
The Lab
Experiment register
- 01Translating Bendre & other Kannada poetry47 works
- 02Deciphering Manku Timmana Kagga in English396 Kaggas
- 03The 108-character Gita experiment3 Adhyayas
- 04What happens to a Vachana in translation30 Vachanas
- 05Carrying Kannada prose across into English3 works
- 06Notes & reflections, set down as they come16 blogs
- 07How does a culturally rooted emotion transcend languages2 works
Selection of the day
Kagga 109
D. V. Gundappa · from the Kannada original
shileyAgi nidrisuttirdAke rAmapada talada samsparshadindeddu nintante
There is a veil of illusion that encompasses this Universe thereby constantly challenging man in his quest of knowledge
In addition to this, there is an unseen, powerful Force that governs the relationships between various living & non-living beings here
As a result, things that appear to man as a lifeless object may suddenly evolve into a living organism under the influence of certain conditions
Ahalya, who had turned into a stone due to a curse of her husband, Gautama remained as a lifeless object till Shri Rama's foot came in contact, upon which she evolved back as Ahalya.
Fresh from The Lab
See what’s new →The Poetry Lab is a living website. New poetry, translations, reflections and experiments are added regularly.
Notes on method
Why does a polymer engineer run a poetry lab?
Because I’ve always been fascinated by what happens when something moves from one medium to another.
In engineering, we study transformation. In translation, we do something strangely similar.
Every translation here is an experiment: a hypothesis about what poetry can become in another language.
Some experiments fail. Others reveal something the original could not say on its own.
Catalogue of the collection
01Poetry— modern voices
02Manku Timmana Kagga— 945 verses on life's absurdity
03Bhagavad Gita— one adhyaya at a time
04Vachanas— 12th-century plain speech
05Prose— longer reading
06Blogs— notes as they come
07The OG Voices— the people behind the lines
I am Krishna Joshi — a Polymer Engineer by trade, a barefoot runner, and a reader of Kannada literature and Indian history.
More about me and this site →