Feminist Poems - 4 (Jayaprabha)
Veluri, Rao
Friends:
Before I post another poem by Jayaprabha, I have an obligation
to repond to the criticism on the previous poem 'andukEgaa vaLLu
Rushulu.' This criticism has appeared in SCIT on April 9, 1996.
I do not logon to SCIT as frequently as I should. I apologise for my
tardiness in replying.
"--- Sri Aditya Vedula garu, ved...@woods.uml.edu (Aditya) writes:
[ Deleted the original poem to save space and my skin!]
This woman has no excuse for writing poetry. This is just
MAD RANTING!! If you think otherwise,I want you to explain to
me why this "poem" is anything else other than ranting. This is
a very sad trend.Frustrated people passing off their rantings as
poetry and all the hypocrites who don't even know what poetry is
supposed to mean read and cheer(If you believe this is good poetry,
you are one of those). [ Rest of the angry stuff deleted!]
Regards,
Aditya. ---"
I confess. I can not explain to Sri Vedula Aditya garu why this
"poem" is a poem, and not a 'ranting from a frustrated person.'
You win. Score - You:1, Me:0
Aditya garu: I do not just'believe' that this is good poetry. I know
it is good poetry. And, very relevant poetry, at that! There is
no question of belief here. After all, beliefs come under religion,
which by definition involves theos - i.e., God. This has got nothing
to do with Mr. or Mrs. God. It is poetry, not theology.
However, I would rather prefer to be called a hypocrite than to
argue with you, and waste your precious time. Friends! For Pete's
sake, please do not even try to draw any inferences from the famous
story of Thomas Huxley, the famous english biologist, lecturing
on the Darwin's theory of evolution and the constant irrelevant
interruptions of the notorious bishop!
Aditya garu, You win again: Score - You: 2 Me:0 ( I love zeroes!)
"---Ps: I have nothing against Feminism,I am not a hidebound
Traditionalist. I'm just a young student, but this is not poetry.
It is stupidity.---"
Aditya Garu: I am not young, but I am also a student. I am still
learning; which sems to be a never ending game! All of us have
some growing up to do; Trust me, I am at least trying!
If this makes you feel better, you are not alone in castigating and
ridiculing feminist poetry. Raavi Saastry, one of the greatest
writers of our time did it. Jwaalamukhi, an erstwhile digaMbara poet
did it. yasvee ( satyanaraayaNa ), and aavaMtsa sOmasuMdar of the
abhyudaya racaitala saMghaM did it. You are in great company.
Pardon my digression: But, I once sat next to Hank Aaron, the
homerun king on a coast to coast flight! Hmm!!
Let me quote what Olagaa wrote in 'neeli mEghaalu' on irresponsible
and condescending chat on feminist poetry: " .... streelu raastunna
kavitalanu neeli kavitalugaa vimarSalu cEsEvaarini coostuMtE, diguvana
ekkaDO neeLLu taagutunna mEkapillapai naa neeLLu eMgili
cEstunnavani daaDi cEsina tODElu gurtostuMdi. aa tODEluki eguva,
diguva, pravaahaM eTuniMci uMdee -- ivannee anavasaraM. daaniki EdO
nepaM kaavaali."
In my opinion, a straight forward response came from Beheroze
Shroff, a poet and a film maker from Bombay. She writes ( I quote it
from 'In their own voice' a poetry collection edited by Arlene Zide -
1993): "... We (feminist writers) need to stop seeing each other
through men's eyes (and language!); we have to have a different
'women's voice' speaking to our problems in a phallocentric society."
Here it is: piece de resistance - Jayaprabha's poem that made at least
two of the above mentioned critics silently eat their own words:
sOmidEvammalu saahityaMlO mari
kanpiMcarani....
appaTi-kappuDu digaMbara-mai
gaDDaa-lannaa peMcakuMDaanE
guDDa-lippesina vaaDu vaaDu
kavinaMToo bayaldEri
abhyudayaM pErutO
aaDatanaa-lanee aavESaa-lanee aadarSaa-lanee muriki-cEstoo
ceedaragaa akshraalaki cedalu tinipiM-cinavaaDu!
"vidEsee kutra-lunnayEmO nanE" anumaanaMtO
ratruLLu
maMDE mohaMtO nidra-paTTaka porlutoo
aparadha-pariSodhakaMgaa
maMcaalani tiragEsu-kuMTaaDu vaaDE!
mariMka ippuDu "kilikiM-citaalu" dorakaDaM lEdu kaabOlu
haThattu gaa goMtu maarci
aaDaaLLa kavitvaa-lalO 'aSleelaalani' vetikE
saMskaraNa daMDaM aracEta paTTi
niluvella 'neelamai'
patrikalloki prayaaNaM kaTTaDu
venakki venakki veLLi
veyyELLu venaka paDDaaDaa!!
ippuDiMkaa yEM parigeDa-taaDu!!
asalE digaMbaraM
aapai daari tappina bhayaM!
ippuDu modalaiMdi tuphaanu gaali
iha taTTukO lEDu!
maarksu pEru nOTa! kaani raatallO
maaTallO taanu manuvu baata!
sOmidEvammalu saahityaMlO mari kanpiMcarani
haDili alaa taanu vaNikitE
aatappu stree lOkaanidaa??
saMskrutaM talakekki caliki castunnaTTu-nnaaDu
EmE kava-itree!
EvO reMDu paata guDDa-luMTE paareyyE!
cuTTukoni sruhalO-kannaa-vastaaDu!!
--November 20, 92
aaMdhra JyOti vaarapatrika
I sincerely apologise to you all for the length of this post.
Regards.
--Venkateswara Rao Veluri
cjam...@dayton.net
"ashTa_daLa_padmam_laagO amRutam_laagO
sandhyaa_kaaSam_laagO vindhyaaSikharam_laagO
sajal_nayanam_laagO saapta_padeenam_laagO
jeevitam maarutundani eduru cooDaTam okandukE
oka manOhara_dRuSyaaniki !
oka sanhidaanandaaniki !!"
says the foremost Telugu feminist poetess jayaprabha in her latest
(fifth) anthology, "yasOdharaa ee vagapendukE!".
In the title verse, she consoles yasOdhara (prince gowthama's wife) thus:
"yasOdharaa ee vagapendukE
vaaru bowddhulu taapasulu
chintalanTavu vaarini
jaraa_mRutyu bhyaalunDavu
sariggaa bOdhi_vRuksham kindE JnaanOdayam avutundani
vaariki mundE telusu!
aa artharaatri anantayaatraki aarambham
teliyanidi neekEnE
yasOdharaa ee vagapendkE
atukkuni gavaakshaaniki alaa digulu choopendukE
neeku sooryOdayamanTEnE asalu bhayamendukE...."
Veluri Venkateswara Rao gaaru has already introduced jayaprabha to the
net audience. I have about 15 copies of her latest volume, "yasOdharaa ee
vagapendukE", an anthology of 42 poems covering a wide variety of topics.
The books can be had for US $ 7. All the money collected minus postal
expenses will be sent to the author (she sent the books to me in hopes
some money can be raised to offset the huge loss she has taken by
publishing on her own). Please send a check written to V. Chowdary
Jampala and mail it to V. Chowdary Jampala, 664 Southern Belle Boulevard,
Beavercreek, OH 45434.
Regards. --- V. Chowdary Jampala
Prasad Chodavarapu
in one of my hindi classes at school. jayaprabha gAri
'yaSOdarA ee vagapendukE' was on similar lines.
did she mention the former work as an inspiration or is
this just a coincidence?
regards
prasAdu cODavarapu
--
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V. Chowdary Jampala
On Wed, 17 Apr 1996, Prasad Chodavarapu wrote:
> i remember reading maithilI SaraN gupt's 'yaSOdara'
> in one of my hindi classes at school. jayaprabha gAri
> 'yaSOdarA ee vagapendukE' was on similar lines.
> did she mention the former work as an inspiration or is
> this just a coincidence?
>
I do not know if jayaprabha's poem is related in anyway (e.g.: a
reaction) to maithili SaraN Gupta's poem. I find these two poems to be
very different.
As Mohanaraavu gaaru posted, maithili SaraN Gupta's yaSOdhara
is an excited wife eagerly awaiting the imminent return of a longlost
husband returning with 'success'. jayaprabha's yaSOdhara is a
distraught woman whose husband left her in the middle of night
without even a word as to the why and where. (Incidentally, I did not post
the entire poem).
Many of the feminist works (including some of jayaprabha's work)
question the assumptions that the writers made about the female
characters and the value systems in the classical, mythological, and
contemporary stories.