By that original spring of pleasure : Sweet-watered, fluent, clear, light, blithe ( This homage merely pays a tithe Of what in joy and inspiration It gave me once and does not cease To give me - Pushkin's masterpiece In Johnston's luminous translation: Eugene Onegin - like champagne Its effervescence stirs my brain.
A wonderful book that covers A thousand themes: Sons and lovers, Men and women, Scrabble and chess, Bombs and chips, and self-criticism. All this with warmth and witticism! It's a masterpiece, nothing less. Is it prose or verse ? I cannot tell, For the lines are fluid, tho' they rest Twice a page. With Seth at his best, I am sated. None can write so well.A brilliant translator ( of Urdu and Chinese), Seth has also written A Suitable Boy, which the critics raved about, comparing him to Tolstoy. There was also All You Who Sleep Tonight, Orion and the Dolphin, Three Chinese poets, The Humble Administrator's Garden, An Equal Music... and this :
The author, Vikram Seth, directed
By Anne Freedgood, his editor,
To draft a vita, has selected
The following salient facts for her:
In '52, born in Calcutta.
8 lb. 1 oz. Was heard to utter
First rhymes ("cat", "mat") at age of three.
A student of demography
And economics, he has written
From Heaven Lake, a travel book
Based on a journey he once took
Through Sinkiang and Tibet. Unbitten
At last by wanderlust and rhyme,
He keeps Pacific Standard Time.
Did you notice, in Golden Gate, the economist (Kim Tarvesh) whose name just happens to be an anagram of "Vikram Seth" ?
Here's a sampling of his verse:
Beatles and Pink Floyd
Why write in tetrameter?
Becoming a Godfather
Friday night
Waking by lover's side
In love? Be warned!
Sit, drink your coffee here