Listening across time: A Collaborative Inquiry into Translation, Sound and Form

We began with what seemed like a simple question: What does it mean to translate a Tamil poem into English? But very quickly, the question dissolved into something far more complex. Translation is far more than the carrying of meaning from one language into another. It is nothing less than an attempt to communicate with another time.

Like all artistic creations, poetry also emerges from a specific ethos — historical, cultural, political and emotional. The way a poet from centuries ago felt, created and expressed was shaped by a world quite different from ours. To encounter such poetry today is not merely to read it, but to enter into a dialogue with that period. Translation, then, becomes an act of listening across time.

Yet, what travels across time most easily is not what we expect. Meaning, more often than not, survives. Otherwise, the poem would not endure. Music does not. And with it, something more elusive is lost: the emotional density embedded in sound.This is especially true in Indian music, where performance often remains aesthetically fluid, extempore and improvisatory, unlike traditions where performance is formally notated.

As a language with 2,000 years of continuous literary production,…