MAHABHARATA CONDENSED INTO ENGLISH ... - Mandhata Global
MAHABHARATA CONDENSED INTO ENGLISH ... - Mandhata Global
MAHABHARATA CONDENSED INTO ENGLISH ... - Mandhata Global
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It would be too much to assume that even with the help of this similarity in metres, I have<br />
been able to transfer into my English that sweep and majesty of verse which is the charm<br />
of Sanscrit, and which often sustains and elevates the simplest narration and the plainest<br />
ideas. Without the support of those sustaining wings, my poor narration must often plod<br />
through the dust; and I can only ask for the indulgence of the reader, which every<br />
translator of poetry from a foreign language can with reason ask, if the story as told in the<br />
translation is sometimes but a plain, simple, and homely narrative. For any artistic<br />
decoration I have neither the inclination nor the necessary qualification. The crisp and<br />
ornate style, the quaint expression, the chiselled word, the new-coined phrase, in which<br />
modem English poetry is rich, would scarcely suit the translation of an old Epic whose<br />
predominating characteristic is its simple and easy flow of narrative. Indeed, the Mahabharata<br />
would lose that unadorned simplicity which is its first and foremost feature if the<br />
translator ventured to decorate it with the art of the modern day, even if he had been<br />
qualified to do so.<br />
For if there is one characteristic feature which distinguishes the Maha-bharata (as well as<br />
the other Indian Epic, the Ramayana) from all later Sanscrit literature, it is the grand<br />
simplicity of its narrative, which contrasts with the artificial graces of later Sanscrit<br />
poptry. The poetry of Kalidisa for instance, is ornate. and beautiful, and almost<br />
scintillates with similes in every verse; the poetry of the Maha-bharara is plain and<br />
unpolished, and scarcely stoops to a simile or a figure of speech unless the simile comes<br />
naturally to the poet. The great deeds of godlike kings sometimes suggest to the poet the<br />
mighty deeds of gods; the rushing of warriors suggests the rushing of angry elephants in<br />
the echoing jungle; the flight of whistling arrows suggests the flight of sea-birds; the<br />
sound and movement of surging crowds suggest the heaving of billows; the erect attitude<br />
of a warrior suggests a tall cliff; the beauty of a maiden suggests the soft beauty of the<br />
blue lotus. When such comparisons come naturally to the poet, he accepts them and notes