some comments

A DISCLAIMER
When I sit back after translating the first 5 acts of Shakunthalam, and look at the works of Kalidasa and specially this play, as a part of my experience of sanskrit literaure, I am struck by the fact that my appreciation has been cursory and limited to a few outstanding stanzas here and there. Since Sanskrit literature was never my first subject, I had no need either for any dissertation on individual works; to a great extent our appreciation was conditioned by the Western, esp. English studies, and it has been for the good, since it gave a broad and comparative understanding. The grammar and other technical approach came from study under orthodox scholars at home; and that also was good from the point of view of discipline and attention to details.There has been however a falling between two stools and lack of steady progress in either.
As a young boy, poetry was a passion.It was religion and religion was poetry. With age that passion has subsided, and the feelings of exhilaration are no more felt, when I read new works of literature. Yet at moments the recalling of the feelings of joy and uplifting experienced long ago do come back and help in reducing the tedium of retirement.When I try to reread the ancient classics and again experience firsthand the emtions as before, I find my mind and eyes are not fit to do that effectively. So as a strategy of revisiting those times and of understanding better the nuances of the art, I have started translating some of the works. It is a harmless pastime as well as an exercise for the mind, I would like to believe.
And as a means of relating in some way to those whom I hold dear, at the expense of their patience, I have started e-mailing my performsnces to them. The idea is not completely to boost my ego, but mainly, as I hope, to familiarise them with some of the traditional stories which they may not have got time and opportunity to have read direcly. And what is often popularly projected may be really quite different from the original.
Coming to Shakunthalam, it marks the culmination of Sanskrit classical poetry. After the epics, Ramayanam and Mahabharatham, where the story and characters were given prominence and verbal embellishments kept to a minimum, the classical period started to pay more and more attention to the construction of plot, and style of expression. Later we find the poets almost madly revelling in the magic and possibilities of word play, with little concern for the story or character portrayal. Kalidasa’s poems and plays indeed balance the two and form a homogeneous work of art.He is acknwledged by the ancient Sanskrit critics for his elegant beautiful style, and power of visual imagery, and ability to invoke feelings,ranging from the sensuous to the most sublime. His world view also strikes us as very modern, and his sensibilty and empathy remarkable. Many modern western scholalars have endorsed it, among them most noteworthy is Goethe, whose response at first contact with Shakunthalam reminds one of Keats on discovery of Homer.
Below is Goethe’s poeom on Shakunthalam, and after that, a homage by another poet, I don’t recall.
BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA
1912