|
In the context of the present world literature
we are proud to say that Nepali literature has
made its place in world literature. The production
of Nepali literature is great and writers are
producing more and more works every month and
week. This must be called a tremendous achievement.
But we have not been able to disseminate this
great literature abroad through translations.
There is a great problem of translation. Producing
the translation of literary works is extremely
difficult and it is very difficult to find people
who can do that. The first important task in
this context, we believe, is the translation
of poetry into different languages.
There are few books and magazines that have
featured the translations of Nepali poems into
English. But that is not adequate. More poems
should be translated. Keeping this in mind,
we have undertaken this tremendous task of getting
the poems, at least the samples of the representative
poems, from Bhanubhakta of the nineteenth century
to the present published in one volume. This
is the first such comprehensive collection of
translated Nepali poems into English.
Here first of all I would like to mention the
name of my dear friend Mr. Hariman Lama with
whom I had discussed about this project, and
was able to give birth to this idea of bringing
out a collection of Nepali poems into English
translation. With his collection of Nepali poems
into English translation. With his active participation
and at his initiative, we have decided to publish
this book as special souvenir for "The
Gloal Youth Meet" which is going to take
place on the eve of the new Millennium organised
by Youth Forum. But the time was so short. Still
we have done our best to publish it. Because
of this rush and shortage of time we have to
miss out some important poems. Would like to
sincerely apologise fot the omissions, which
are not deliberate.
Dr. Abhi Subedi, despite his very busy time,
kindly agreed to edit this collection. He also
translated many poems within a short time at
our request, and corrected even the minute mistakes
of the texts that he found. I do not even have
words to thank Dr. Subedi. He has been so helpful.
The publishing part goes to Mr. Hariman Lama
while I coordinate on the behalf of the literary
Journalist Association. So I once again express
my gratefulness to Mr. Lama.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank
all the great poet and translators who provided
me with their valuable poems in translated form.
Since we could not get some poems translated
due to the pressure of time, we extracted them
from various published sources. They are Indreni,
Seven Poets, Modern Nepali Poems, Kavita 65,
Naya Kavita, Lyrical Poems by Chandani Shah,
unpublished poem of Bhoopi Sherchan translated
by Dr. Michael Hutt received from Prof. Subedi
and Journal of South Asian Literature. I would
like to acknowledge with many thanks to these
sources.
In the process of compliling this souvenir,
I would also like to take this chance to thank
Prabina Amatya, Pradeep Shrestha and Saroj Shrestha,
who have greatly helped me by walking side by
side with me to make this task a great success.
Likewise thanks are due to Narendra B. Shrestha,
R. Lekali and Momila.
In the end I hope that all the readers will
enjoy the poems and give me inspiration to take
many more steps in this direction and engage
in similar meaningful creative projects in the
future.
Thank you,
Hemanta Shrestha
|
