CP: In conversation with with Farideh Hassanzadeh
Farideh Hassan Zadeh( Mostafavi)
“Without poetry I could not have fought against injustice and cruelty.”
Some poets are easy to get at, anybody can understand them. They speak to the heart of the common man and the intellectual alike and are understood by them likewise. With their poems, you could go on a trip or go to sleep. You could even murmur some lines of their poetry while shampooing your hair in the shower. They are hidden like pearls in oysters and you’ve got to dive and bring them out of the depths of oceans. Now, what kind of a poet is C.P.Aboobacker: In my view he is a beautiful amalgamation of such a popular poet who appeals to many and at the same time is a serious, academic poet. If I admire his poetry, it is because I find no distinction between his life and his pure poetry. He has been a serious social activist from the first years of his youth. This shows the union between his poetry and his life. Here he discusses various issues relating to literature and religion among other things.
Farideh Hassanzadeh: How do you interpret the September 11th tragedy?
CP Aboobacker: September 11th tragedy is a great calamity, of course - man-made calamity. The main thing about it is that the US rulers are as responsible for it as perpetrators of the tragedy are. But for the unwarranted victimization by the US aggressors, the world over, the calamity would not have occurred. But in history there is no “but”; it is a record of what actually happened. Therefore 11th September has happened; Afghanistan is conquered; Iraq is in ruins. These are realities. Any kind of attack on human and animal lives, on human civilization, and on nature should be deplored and stopped, whether it is war or terror. As for American literature, I do not want to read govt. sponsored literature; I still stand on the beautiful title by Alice Walker: All That We Love Can Be Saved. The US govt thinks that all that they desire can be conquered. Now they are against Iran, Syria, and North Korea. Aggressors never learn lessons; in defeat they are revengeful, in victory they are arrogant. If imperialist hegemonization does not stop, terrorism also will not stop; we lose moral right to ask any one to do or not to do anything.
FH: What is the relationship between literature and religion?
CP: I do not think poetry has any connection with religion; all books of religion are most often good poetry. Bible with its parables and Khur-aan are all poetry par excellence. So, we believe they are God-sent; I wish to believe they are man-composed. May be I am wrong; I wish I am wrong. But, still, religion had had a time when it was metaphysical, it encompassed the whole universe and its secrets; Sufis tried it, and saints tried it; they were always good poetry singers; they sang perhaps to themselves; they wove songs on universal secrets; that is how Mansur became a Hallaj, the weaver. Omar Khayyam was not hedonistic as is often given out; he was a mystic singing happily of how the world wishes it should live. But most religions end their metaphysics and faith in slogans: Allahu Akbar (God is great). Perhaps God might not like this unwanted praise; slogans first emanated from religion, not from politics. I am neither anti-religion, nor pro-religion. I think religion is a fact - it exists and it happens; but fundamentalists are sometimes detrimental to humanity. All religions speak of love, truth, morality and what not! But what is being practiced is not conducive to attain these ends. I would like to add: the agenda of poetry (i.e. literature) is life in this world, the agenda of religion is life after death.
FH: Maryam Ala Amjadi, Iranian poet says: “I feel that if real poetry were written, the pen would break into half, for it would not possibly tolerate the madness, the originality, the genuine poem.” Do you agree?
CP: I do believe that poetry could be written with consciousness. Still poetry presents a mad attitude; it is a kind of intoxication, a revelation. Truth does not reveal to you if you are plain and flat; you walk on sandy path; sands are golden in colour; it is not a desert; it does not wrinkle; it is smooth and beautifying; but you imagine things if it were a desert; or a beach with holes of little crabs; crabs turn to cancer; you experience the pain. Of course, you are torn, wounded. But what is real poetry? Rumi has written real poetry, Goethe has written it. Neruda has written it; trembling generations of Chilean society, from young girls to old buddies; poetry is not sharp, it is just strong - its influence is strong. Poetry is positive. Have you heard, Farideh, that one of my poems ends with the statement that that there is no antonym for poetry. It is that, and nothing more.
FH: There is a theory that says that all writers, even the male, write with a feminine soul.
CP: I don’t subscribe to this theory. As for Muses, they might be feminine; as for poets of the earth, most of them are masculine; those who composed Rg-vedic hymns were Rishis, the wise men; the best literature in history were composed by men- Homer, Virgil, Milton, Shakespeare, Iranian poets like Firdausi, Rumi, Amir Khusru, and Indian poets like Kalidasa, Valmiki. Of course, there is Ratiji, Farideh, Kamala Surayya, Annie Finch and Blaga Dimitrov; but men far outnumber women. It is not a question of counting heads of men and women in literature; men had greater chances; in spite of it, Brontes are small in number, Wuthering Heights is a special case amongst a galaxy of beautiful works created by men. I am not gender conservative; but on the contrary. But history is history.
FH: Let’s admit that finding solitude for a man to stay home and write is as natural as for a woman to peel onion in the kitchen. Even in societies where equality is not the slogan among men and women, she feels uneasy with the circumstances when she sits behind a desk to write, she feels unusual, as if she has betrayed others. Her conscience suffers from the guilt that she might have robbed others’ rights. If you do not agree with this statement, then, would you please express what is the difference between Women’s Literature, and Men’s Literature?
CP: I fear we live in two circumstances. We have in India good women writers. But men outnumber them. Very often men write about the same problems. Woman needs no excuses for writing. She is as capable of writing as man is. She does not require to express a guilty consciousness. I can also peel onion, my wife does not object to that; man-woman equality is a must. Woman is intellectually fully equipped as man. Please see my poem “onion”- it is written in English – it is, in fact, a tribute to my wife, to women who suffer the bondages of the household.
FH: The Turkish poet Enis Batur writes: “If ‘Death’ didn’t exist, Mankind would never write poetry. He would never need it.” The Iranian poet Soufi writes: “Everyone fears death: Poets fear it more.” How do you interpret this? To what extent do you agree with it?
CP: I don’t agree. I don’t fear death. I don’t know when it comes, I welcome it. But I am not a lover of death; death is not the end of the world. Death is inevitable. Death makes life possible. I had written in one of my Malayalam poems:
I hope hopelessly
That Death is not the end:
Oh, death, where is my place
In your book of judgment?
It is neither fear nor adoration of death. Basheer, the celebrated writer in Malayalam, also had the same view. I had published an interview I held with him in 1992 in one of the former issues of www.thanalonline.com.
FH: What is your idea about the translation of poetry? Please tell us of your own experiences as a translator .
CP: Translation is a process of requiring the faculty to enter the mind of the writer who is being translated. Of course, journalistic translations are easy. But you cannot translate poetry, story etc. Creative writings are beyond the competency of any man or woman other than the original creator. But there are certain poems, certain works of art of literature that haunts the translator; I have translated many books, most of them history. They did not pose any challenge to me. But I translated sixty poems of Joop Bersee, the great S. African poet. I published it in Malayalam with the title “One who writes poems.” There is a poem in the collection with the title “Writer of poems.” I changed it a little and made it the title of the book. I must confess that it was the most crucial period of my life. I became Joop Bersee myself. I entered into him, and through email, I gave him the English summary of what I translated. I had to get his approval; it was not an assignment, I took it up on my own. I spent about six months to complete the work. But remember, I did the translation work at a stretch, in a couple of days. I wanted them to look purely Malayalam. I also translated your interview with Blaga. It was a marvelous task. Each word is important; each phrase is important. I translated Osho Rajaneesh’s Meditation and Communism. I did it on assignment. The publisher wanted me to bring all its depths in Malayalam. It is well accepted. Translation is a creative work. That is my experience.
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Farideh Hassan Zadeh( Mostafavi) - Mostafavi is an Iranian poet, translator and freelance journalist. Her first book of poetry was published when she was twenty-two. Her poems appear in the anthologies Contemporary Women Poets of Iran and Anthology of Best Women Poets.. She is the author of The Last Night with Sylvia Plath: Essays on Poetry .She has extensively translated World literature into Persian.