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Poet of the Revolution:The Memoirs and Poems of Lal Singh Dil, Translated
from Punjabi byNirupama Dutt. Pages 167, Price Indian Rs399.Penguin
Viking, 2012.ISBN 9780670086559.
One must congratulateNirupama Dutt for two things. First, for presenting,
through this English translation, the life story (Dastãn, Chetna,1998) and
some poems of Lal Singh Dil (1943-2007), a Punjabi ‘Naxalite’ poet, to
non-Punjabi readers, certainly in the Indian subcontinent but also across
the seven seas. Second, for having succeeded in seducing a mainstream
Indian publisher to do a ‘lowbrow’, ‘provincial’ andan ‘unsalable’
regional language author. This is a great achievement, and admirers ofLal
Singh Dil and readers of Punjabi poetry and literature must thank her
profusely. For her own self it seems to have been a labour of love for a
friend who unfortunately is no more alive to show his gratitude.
Dil’s autobiography, Dastãn,presents many roadblocks even for the most
determined translator. Dil’s narration looks an incoherent, at places a
disorganised, mass of often disconnected and incomplete anecdotes that
follow one another pell-mell. Quite often he leaves his incidents hanging
and incomplete. He does not give us any dates, so we are forced to guess
what happened and when. There are many gaps in the narrative.We don’t know
when and how exactly he turned a Naxalite.Dutt has tried to remove many of
these flaws through her copy-editing. She has given shape to Dil’s text by
providing chapter headings, though characterised by journalistic
flourishes, and made it look thematically coherent. This would certainly
facilitate a reader new to Lal Singh Dil.
Another interesting thing about the book is that Dutt provides, in her
Introduction, akind of postscript to the poet’s own account. She in a way
completes the story that was left midway by the poet, by providing some
glimpses of Dil’s life after his return from Uttar Pradeshin
early1980still his death in 2007. In many ways her account is very moving
as well as revealing, though somewhat romanticised. PremPrakash’s Foreword
(1998) also adds to and provides many insights into the poet’s life and
character.
However, I have a few issues with the book. The title itself, Poet of the
Revolution, sounds abstract.It does not by itself convey the concreteness
of the revolutionary aspect of Dil’s life and poetry. And in Dutt’s
Introduction no real attempt is discernible to clarify what she means by
the expression ‘the Revolution’. To say that he was a Naxalite
revolutionary is to say the obvious.
Lal Singh Dil with his mother Chint Kaur. Samrala. 1978
PHOTO by Amarjit Chandan
There are one or two issues with her copy-editing. Dutt has cut nearly
forty pages from the Punjabi version of Dil’s memoirs,Dastãn, consisting
of 169 pages. Pages 46-65dealing with Dil’s childhood and the milieu in
Samrala in which he grew up, do not form a part of Dutt’s text. The
partdealing with Dil’s life in Uttar Pradesh has been heavily edited and
reduced nearly by half. And she has altogether omitted the last few pages
(p.157-169)containingDil’s account of his life after his return from Uttar
Pradesh to Samrala. She may have had good reasons for doing all this, but
she should have spelled them out clearly. One may feel that the editing
has been over-done. The English reader might miss some features of the
world in which Dillived, and many warts and all in Dil’s life and
character.
A few other alterations are more questionable. For example, the
pock-marked face (p.19,Dastãn) of a girl towards whom the boy Lal was
attracted becomes one ‘with dimpled cheeks’ in her Memoirs, as does the
face of the police havaldar whose pock-marked face (p.110) reminds Dil of
this girl! The ‘six month rigorous imprisonment’ (p.115) becomes ‘a few
years of rigorous imprisonment’. The village Kudeli in the Punjabi text
(p.126), after which Lal Singh named one of his most beautiful poems,‘The
Women of Kudeli Village’, becomes Kuraili in Dutt’s text. I am afraidshe
has made the first two changesto romanticise Dil’s life story. The last
one might be a misprint.
Finally, what makes Dil’s storyso memorable and readable? As I see it, one
can detect at least four powerful currents flowing through the narrative.
First, the sheer and abject ordinariness of the lives of thepeople that
constitute Dil’s world. Second, a naggingsense of the discrimination he
faced in the village, at school and college, at the police station and
even after his conversion to Islam, and in the Movement from his fellow
revolutionaries. Third, his strong yet unfulfilled longing for the love
and company of a girl, and later a woman. And fourth, his passion to write
poetry under circumstances that strain theimagination. At the background,
of course, is the awareness that the revolution on which he had, in his
naivety, pinned so much hope never came about.
Cover of Dil’s first collectionSatlujdihawa, 1st edition 1971
Lal Singh’s Dastãn is a flawed document, but flaws do not diminish the
value of the book, for it still shines like an uncut diamond, and is a
reflection of the poet’s edgy and maverick existence. This is obvious from
at least one part of the narrative, certainly the most well written part
of it (and almost untouched by Dutt’s scissors), in which Dil narrates his
participation in the farcicalattack on theChamkaur police station, his
arrest and all that happens to him during his police custody until he is
sentenced to six months rigorous imprisonment. This part is a superb piece
of narrative -lucid, coherent and complete. Dil seems to remember each
minute detail of the physical and mental torture inflicted upon him,
including the names and faces of his tormentors. The description is
straightforward, graphic, matter of fact; and completely
unsentimental,devoid of rancor, as if he were talking not about himself
but an unknown person. He is deserted by his friends and family who are
certainly incapable, and unwilling, to provide any succor to this naïve
and credulousman who remains steadfast in the face of all that he suffers.
His life after release from jail is another bizarre tale of wanderings,
almost like that of a foraging animal, in search of a measly means
oflivelihood, solace, a resting place and freedom from his greatest foe,
the ever-chasing monster of social exclusion; a lifewhich finallyfolds up
near his home town, Samrala, as a vendor of tea where he dies a sick man,
perhaps mentally unstable, and an edict, supported by few friends.
Dil’s life and poetry are a devastating critiqueof the Indian state and
society as well as the democratic and egalitarian presumptions of our
dominant classes and castes. We must thank NirupamaDutt for showcasing
this man’s life and poetry to the English readership.
─TrilokGhai E: tcghai@rediffmail.com
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
TrilokGhai retired as Associate Professor in English literature from a
college under Delhi University in 2002. He has published two short novels
The Stricken Moth (1984) and Alone in the Wilderness (2000), both from
Writers Workshop, Kolkata. He has also published poems in the Journal of
the Poetry Society (India) and did poetry reviews (1991-94) for the same
journal. His translations of Pash have been published as: Pash: A Poet of
Impossible Dreams (Shilalekh Delhi, 2010) and more recentlyhis
translations of Lal Singh Dil‘s five poems have been published in the
latest issue of Modern Poetry in Translation (Series 3 Number 18, Oxford).
[December 2012]
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