In the world of digital poets, Sahitya Akademi Award winner Ranjit Hoskote has carved a niche. His poetry collection has been highly appreciated globally and has been translated into many languages and he is compared to Nissim Ezekiel. In conversation with FE, Ranjit Hoskote shares thoughts on his 2021 poetry collection HunchProse and the state of poetry in India. Edited excerpt:
How did the author in you react to the pandemic?
In my case the focus was on being able to write, read, and re-read with a deep awareness that it was a dreadful urgency and a frightening situation for millions—a paradoxical situation. As a writer, I was able to be creative, but a large part of my consciousness was caught up with the forced migration of millions and everything falling apart. One crisis after another. I got busy with questions of education; The digital divide was about to exacerbate and worsen the existing asymmetry. So, I was not only writing poetry and essays, but also thinking about what forms of empathy could be developed for those who were suffering.
Your collection of poems was published in Hunchpros 2021. What was the idea behind it?
HunchProse was largely written a long time ago, but it came out in 2021. It grew out of other kinds of urgency and it’s not really an epistemic book. I have written another set of poems during the pandemic. Hunchproj was a book that came out of my preoccupation with the ecological crisis that has long been about me as an author and citizen and as someone connected to the curatorial world. Of course, the chaos or havoc that wreaked havoc on Kashmir happened in the midst of the time I was working on the book, a question that visits many of the collection’s poems.
You have recently been declared the winner of the 7th Mahakavi Kanhaiyalal Sethia Award. Your thoughts on this?
I had no idea that this was going to happen. So not only was I surprised, but also really overcome, because it is a great honor and carries forward the legacy of a poet who was multilingual and who contributed to Rajasthani, Hindu and Urdu. He represented the ideal of someone who was firmly rooted in one place and yet a cosmopolitan in access to other places and literature. Even if you choose to write in a language like mine, it’s important that creativity be nurtured and that’s why it’s so resonant to me. This is the spirit in which I accept it.
Do you agree that there has been a resurgence in poetry as a genre over the years due to the efforts of literary festivals and literary gatherings?
This is a question that arises every few years. People announce the death of poetry and a couple years down the line, it rises. I don’t think poetry has ever been in danger of extinction. It’s just that new forms find new practitioners and new audiences. The major change is the wider variety of online forms, which also serve as focal points for new communities and encourage other forms of poetry writing. It is now available in several incarnations—stage poetry, hybrid, podcast—with different ways of engaging poets and audiences.
But would you agree that Instagram poetry is able to reach a wider audience than traditional poetry?
I don’t think it’s a style. I don’t think the stage has defined poetry that much. To some extent yes, it depends on what technology. I am only interested in good poetry, no matter what the platform. I’m not interested in separating by platforms, I’m interested in doing the opposite – I’ll embrace the diversity of platforms. For example, haiku was written in the 12th century. So, I don’t think readers are limiting themselves to any format.
There is a heated debate that publishing houses prefer writers with brand value…
This is a more complex and nuanced scenario. I think some authors can be translated into brands and on the other hand great value can be added to new discovery. I can see budding writers and poets searching for publications all the time.
You have translated the poems of Lal Ded. What other translations are you working on?
I am working on a translation of the works of Mir Taqi Mir, a great poet at the turn of the 18-19th century. It started as a Twitter project as I used to do my own translation with original Urdu couplets, a Roman transliteration and an image. After that it gained momentum and it was a project that started on social media. It comes out next year. I am also working on a collection that talks about environmental devastation, a deep sense of insecurity, forms of healing and empathy – questions we all face right now.
The disposition is becoming more politically inclined, and this is increasingly being reflected in the works being written.
It is unfortunate that we are becoming more polarised, but the reverse is that the youth are aware of what is at stake. I think it’s the nature of the times.