BENGALURU:In 1943 D V Gundappa brought out, in an unpretentious form, a collection of 945 verses set to poetic meter, containing profound wisdom in easy, accessible language. He could not have imagined the impact this little book would have on the hearts and minds of the Kannada people.
The Mankutimmana Kagga has become one of the most important works of 20th century Kannada literature. It has enjoyed such popularity that generations of people from Karnataka are familiar with the work, at least in part.
D V Gundappa (1887-1975) failed in his matriculation exams but grew up to be a polymath. Among other things he was a peerless journalist, writer, art connoisseur, critic, poet, political analyst, philosopher, activist, institution builder, social worker, songwriter, translator, and social commentator. Known simply as ‘DVG’ in the Kannada country, Gundappa has a special place in Kannada literature and in the hearts of Kannadigas.
Mankutimmana Kagga is basically a poem about life. Humorous, thoughtful, poignant, and sarcastic by turns, it gives us an overview about life. The penetrating insights of DVG have been captured elegantly in verse, without being didactic or ostentatious.
Foggy Fool’s Farrago is a 21st century English translation of the Kagga by my grandmother Malathi Rangaswamy and me. The renowned Sanskrit scholar and poet, Shatavadhani Dr R Ganesh has written a masterful introductory essay to the translation.
The translation stays true to the original, with several additional notes to make the text more accessible to the lay reader.
The entire text of the Kagga also appears at the end of the book for those who might be interested in comparing the translation with the original.
Foggy Fool’s Farrago is an attempt not just to take the Kagga to a non-Kannada reader within India but to take this work of DVG to the world. We hope we have succeeded in making this seventy-four-year-old poem accessible to a reader of today, wherever she may be in the world. Here are just two examples from their translation:
Verse 68
Half light, half hints, half learning;
everything incomplete here
Till we know where to find the
whole,
who shall reveal the mystery
inside nature’s box
Every life is a secret!
Verse 935
Pepper, mulberry, ginger, cumin - all
are suitable,
but each one for a particular ailment
Similarly, while there are a hundred
doctrines,
to recognize the suitable one is the
way of the wise
DVG himself thought of the Kagga as a song of wisdom for the common-folk, not for pundits and professors.
He famously said, “The Mankutimmana Kagga is not aimed at scholars, celebrities, or the well-fed. If it becomes but a drop of oil to the lamp of the house of the utterly ordinary, I shall be fulfilled.”
Foggy Fool’s Farrago aims to take DVG’s original poem to readers all over the world.