Birds love the net poem Kondepudi Nirmala- Modern Telugu Literature in Translation

 Satavahana university karimnagar

MA. Semester III Final year

Paper IV A English 304 A - Syllabus

Modern Telugu Literature in Translation

Unit I Concepts

a. Social Reformation

b. Free Verse Movement in Telugu

c. Progressive Telugu Poetry

d. Telugu Feminist Writing

e. Secularisation of Drama

Unit II: Poetry

The following Poems from Twentieth Century Telugu Poetry Ed. Velcheru Narayana Rao

a) Vishwanatha Satyanarayana: "The Blind Beggar," "Your Chariot"; Sri Sri: "The Wheels of Jagannath," "Song of Victory." 

b) Balagangadahara Tilak- " A prayer", "The night it rained life".Kondeputi Nirmala-Rained Out," "Birds Love the Net."

Unit III: Novel

a) Kesava Reddy: Moogavanbi Pillanagrovi (Ballad of Ontillu)

D) Volga: Liberation of sito (Trans. T. Vijay Kumar)

Unit IV: Short Stories

The following short stories from Gold Nuggets Ed. Bh. Krishnamurthi a) Chaso: "The Choice;" Chalam: "A Flower Blossoms"

b) Kethu Vishwanatha Reddy: The Trusted Land", B.S.Ramulu: Moonlight in the  forest", Boya Jangaiah, "Ants" 

 Unit V: Drama

Gurajada Appa Rao: Girls for Sale (Kanyasulkam) Trans. Velcheru Narayana Rao

b) MM. Vinodini: Thirst (Trans. K. Suneeta Rani)

                           ***********

                      Unit II: Poetry

The List of Net-loving Birds

https://www.academia.edu/49080362/Pride_of_Place_An_Anthology_of_Telugu_Poetry_1981_2000

Kondepudi Nirmala

Your first question as soon

You enter the house:

Where is the son-in-law?

Second question:

Haven’t children come back home yet?

Third question

Can’t you spare time to house-keeping?

I try to paste my face

Wherever you look at, where your attention is.

No use

Even you have more affection

For my wifehood, for my motherhood.

Suppressing the river of a sigh

That gets divided and ruled over

With a new name for each shore

This brood hen searches for words.

I am your child.

And won’t you say:

Why have you become so big in such short time?

How did you get up and run away from my lap?

The graying locks on cheeks

The pupils in the eyes turning into lakes

Never bothered me.

The social justice that gained permanence

Never really frightened me.

The whirling rage tangled to a tether

Never irritated me.

Whenever we meet each other

Exchanging the weight of relentless anxieties over our

shoulders

Only the scene of closed gates comes alive.

Slitting our pain-inflicted smiles that

Rattle on both sides of rails

The burning train moves with grunting sounds

Making way for one and thousand hands and heads.

We stop helplessly

In the station where we become accustomed to sounds

Not our own.

We forget the flow of our blood.

I take care not to leave any mark of my sorrow

In every letter that I write.

Getting answers to the three questions

You go away.

My words melt in my mouth.

My childhood gets scratched out within.

My ocean becomes a centre of smuggling.

In the list of net-loving birds

My name gets registered once again

Birds love the net

https://poetly.substack.com/p/birds-love-the-net.

Kondepudi Nirmala

Your first question 

as you come through the doorway 

Where's my son-in-law?

Second question:

Aren't the kids home yet?

Third question:

The house is all messy,

 why don't you keep it clean?

I try hard to place my face on every corner your eyes fall.

Doesn't help.

 You too care more for the housewife than for me.

Suppressing the sighs of the river renamed at every shore this hen, your mother of chicks, scratches words in front of you.

Mom, I am your daughter. 

Won't you ask 

why your child is so old already? 

Why did she run away from your lap so soon?

No, it is not the hair graying behind the ears, 

the hollowing eyes, 

the rules of society, 

not even the restless fury whirling round and round trying to bite off the tether

Whenever we see each other, the gate is closed at the crossing.

The train cuts across our painful smiles clanking, fuming

We let the thousand and one heads and hands pass We stop helpless.

We forget in the noise the rush of our blood in the veins.

 I take care not to let my thoughts blot the letters I write You take the answers to the three questions you have.

My words melt in my mouth. 

My childhood dies in me. 

My ocean becomes a centre for smugglers.

Once again my name is entered among the birds that love their net.

About the Poet

Nirmala Kondepudi is a well-known feminist poet. She is a journalist by profession and a creative writer by nature. She was born on March 26, 1958, in Hyderabad. She graduated from Stella Maris College in Vijayawada in 1977. She has made significant efforts in three literary genres, i.e., short stories, poetry, and columns. 

She started her career in the editorial department of Andhra Jyoti magazine in 1978. She is one of the strongest voices in Telugu modern poetry. 

Poetry collections:

1.Sandhigdha Sandhya సందిగ్ధ సంధ్య (Hesitant Twilight) 1988

2.Nadiche Gaayalu నడిచేగాయాలు

(Walking Wounds) 1990

3.Baadha sapta nadi బాధాశప్తనది (1994), (River accursed with pain) 

4.Multi-national Muddu మల్టీనేషనల్ ముద్దు(Multinational Kiss) 2000

5.నివురు(2012)

She is the recipient of numerous awards. Some of them are: 

Tapi Dharma Rao Memorial Award, 1988,

 B.N. Reddy Award 1994 for Sandhigdha Sandhya, 

Devulapalli Krishnasastri Award 1993

and also The Poet of the Year 1994 from the SBR Cultural Wing.

The poet with feminist consciousness attempts to bring out the inner agony,unspoken and unnoticed issues of women in patriarchal society. The poet's irony can be seen in the concluding lines that her name should be registered once again in the list of net-loving birds. She uses the bird’s net as a metaphor for women's situations in present-day society. The net symbolizes a trap in which women involuntarily fall, which they cannot escape. Mother asks three questions to the poet as soon as she enters the house. First question: where is the son-in-law? Second, haven't kids come back home yet? Third, why don't you keep your house clean?Her mother always identifies her daughter's state of being a wife and mother rather than an individual. The poet poignantly questions her mother, saying that she never asks why her daughter has become so old with gray locks on her cheeks and how she has grown up so soon. She is not worried about the social rules, the whirring sound and hollowing eyes. The poet sees a closed gate between her and her mother whenever they want to exchange the burden of their anxieties. She feels that she doesn't feel rush of blood in her veins as if she is dead.