Poems of Aduri Satyavathi Devi
Poem-28
Viable Seed
Telugu Original: Aduri Satyavathi Devi
English Translation: NS Murthy
Even a tear is dear to me.
Melting silently over cheeks
Like hope’s mackerel sky… drop by drop
Occasionally,
Drizzling at other times
Like when the florid palanquin of desires
Coming close to the hands but slipping off,
Hugging dearly
Like the cosily embedded
‘Swati-rain’ of letters
In the nacre of experiences
Those nestle in heart’s bay,
Soothing by handfuls
Once in a while,
Like the solacing breeze down the hill
In the dense forest of life,
Swelling up
At different times
To a crescendo to time’s rhythmic beat,
The typhoons of humiliations
And rivers of failures
Surging to inundate as a tidal wave.
To be frank,
Every tear is dear to me.
For, it is the viable seed
That has come through the cupel of life.
*****
Telugu Original :‘Saara Beejam’
Aduri Satyavathi Devi was born in Guntur in the year 1948 and settled in Visakhapatnam after marriage in 1969. She began her literary career as a lyricist at the age of 13. She wrote a variety of lyrics numbering about 300 — light, classical, devotional, patriotic, children’s and others. More than 50 songs of Satyavati Devi were broadcast over All India Radio. Eventually she made forays into various other literary genres like Poetry, Short story, Essay, Radio Play, Musical Feature, Books, Film reviews, Forewords etc..She created a substantial corpus of poetry with more than 180 poems included in 4 anthologies of poetry. She received accolades from readers, scholars, critics and litterateurs for her sensitive rendering of poems. She participated in many Poetry Meets, Festivals conducted by All India Radio, Doordarshan and the Sahitya Akademi. She was widely translated into English and Hindi. Some of the translations appeared in renowned journals like Indian Literature (English), and Samakaaleen Bharateeya Saahitya (Hindi).
She published her first volume of lyrics Vennello Venugaanam in 1988. Her first volume of poetry Rekkamudavani Raagam was published in 1992 followed by Jalapaata Geetam in 1997 and Veyirangula Velugu Raagam in 2006. Hindi translation of Rekkamudavani Raagam came out in 2008 as “Pankh an Modnevaalaa Raag” and a miscellany of various facets of her literary endeavour Vennela Paarijaataalu was published posthumously in Dec 2008. She received many prizes and awards for her literary pursuits and accomplishments like STVD Kalasamithi Award for Rekkamudavani Raagam in 1993, and Telugu University’s “Pratibha Puraskaram” as “Best Poet” in 1994, “Krishna Sastry Award” from Andhra Lalita Kala Samithi (Secunderabad) in 1998, UNESCO Literary Award in 2000, and “Ramavruksha Benipuri Janma Sataabdi Sammaan” from Jaimuni Academy (Panipat) in 2002. An English translation of her poem, “Veyirekkala Pavuram” (Myriad Winged Bird) has been included in the syllabus of English texts in the poetry section of Degree year students by the Common Core syllabus Committee in AP from 2008.