Kabir Sing: Guardians of Immortal Poetry

The aim of this essay is to explore the Hindi literature of 15th century, which was the era of Bahkti Movement in Hindi Sahitya and check hoe it is still relevant to us by comparing two different translation produce in two different centuries. Here our representative of this movement is Sant Kabir Das, who has produce some of the incredibly soul touching short poems known as Doha. This literary work is still actively kept alive firstly by Rabindranath Thakur and secondly by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra. Yes it’s a fact that many have attempted to translate the works of the legendry Kabir Das, by these two have played a crucial role by being pioneers to translate Kabir in the language which was spoken by the masses at different times, respectively. 
  

Poet & Translators

Kabir was a 15th-century Indian mystic poet and saint, whose writing has influence Bhakti movement. Many Hindu sects consider him as a reformer and great Bhakt. Kabir's verses are found in Sikhism's scripture Guru Granth Sahib. His most famous writings include his dohas or couplets. The main themes of these dohas was how to create a bridge between oneself and the divine, to not to subscribe to the illogical practices prescribe by the priests and criticized Hinduism and Islam.
                

Our second poet is Robindronath Thakur also known by his sobriquets Gurudev, Kabiguru, and Biswakabi, was a polymath, poet, musician, and artist from the Indian subcontinent. He reshaped Bengali literature and music, as well as Indian art with Contextual
                                                                                                                                     
Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Author of the "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse" of Gitanjali, he became in 1913 the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Tagore's poetic songs were viewed as spiritual and mercurial; however, his "elegant prose and magical poetry" remain largely unknown outside Bengal. He is sometimes referred to as "the Bard of Bengal"
Lastly we’ll be discussing the translation by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, is an Indian poet, anthologist, literary critic and translator. He has published six collections of poetry in English and two of translation--a volume of Prakrit love poems, The Absent Traveller, recently reissued in Penguin Classics, and Songs of Kabir. His essays Partial Recall: Essays on Literature and Literary History was published by Permanent Black in 2012. A second book of essays Translating the Indian Past (Permanent Black) is forthcoming in 2019. Mehrotra has translated more than 200 works from the ancient Prakrit language and Hindi, Bengali and Gujarati.

Comparison between the works 

It is really inspiring to see the example of the proverb “Artist dies but his work remains immortal”, as Kabir used to write in 15th century India and his writings are still able to create a huge impact on its readers and the society. Back then it made a mark due to the language in which it was written and because of its themes, as for then he used colloquial Hindi which was spoken by the common folks and gave message like that of a priest. Since these Doha mostly deal with religious conflict present in the society, he often received death theatres or theatres of being disowned. In spite of these hurdles he continued to write and his works are still relevant as for the mental set up of our people has not change much, but only difference then and now is that, back then he asked people to believe in God and stop doing illogical practices, and now people are so impressed by him that they began to make temples in his name and started to practice illogical practices in his name.
              Now talking about Robindronath Thakur who six centuries later the original work was produce thought of translating it into English. Back then in 19th century English was a language of elites, yet learned by masses and had began to make its mark as a global language. Here by doing this translations Thakur might have aimed to show how a poor man from 15th century India was then still relatable and can be useful for coming generations. These translated works by Thakur was also able to make Kabir’s Doha a part of World Literature. Since in his work Thakur use few archaic words its really does not make you feel amaze, rather one feels that if Kabir new English then even he might have written in similar manner.   
            On the other hand A K Mehrotra’s translations, his work has taken the Doha’s to another level by trying to keep the message as it is but by getting the feeling and emotions in more modern way through using contemporary language which is full of pop culture references, slangs and use of specific words to portray their emotions, like ‘screw up’, topsyturvy, huckster. With this he writes in a manner that doesn’t make it look as a translated work, and sounds more original and relatable. 

Conclusion                So from the examples of the translation, one gets to learn how evolution is key to our liveliness. One cannot say that this is right and is the ultimate truth, as rather each truth has its own perception proving it to be right. Like taking the Kabir's Doha, we can't really say that they are the ultimate words of enlightenment and the other translations aren’t. As it's only because of these translations that the original work is able to increase its life and be acquaintance to the readers’ world wild.
Also one can really not comment on which work is better or best also all the three works has a common aspect to it that is all these three works are written in the common language of their times. Secondly people in the initial stage did not give much respect to their work but later are remembers as one of the best works and I am pretty sure this will be same with Mahrotra’s translation, as he is able to give us the lesson of Kabir but in more cooler way and in a manner in which the young generations can related to or understand in a single reading.