Two Mumbai-based poets come together for the launch of a new poetry book

One writes predominantly in English The other in Marathi But when they meet the two poets slip out of each otherrsquos language effortlessly as if they were always writing and thinking in both languages Sometimes they break into Hindi as well Thatrsquos every Mumbaikar for you they tell this writer Multilingual Their poetry isnrsquotPoeteditorpublishertranslator and former adman Hemant Divate 56 is a native of Shahpur village who made Mumbai his home in the 1980s Inspired by the cityrsquos changing grammar he began experimenting with verse in Marathi Divatersquos first book Chautishiparyantchya Kavita came out in 2001 and he has since published five collections and worked on three translations He is consumed by nature and the changing polity and urban fabricHis friend Mustansir Dalvi 59 who is also a poet editor and translator and a professor at the Sir JJ School of Architecture identifies as a South Bombay poet even though he resides in Navi Mumbai and should according to Divate be called a suburban poet ldquoSoBo poets only write in English I feel that Mustansir thinks in Marathihellip like merdquo shares the Andheri resident Dalvi has published three books of poems He reveres buildings is invested in Mumbairsquos heritage but like Divate is equally perturbed by the politics of our timeWhere one bridge divides them another brings both togetherThe two recently collaborated on a book of poems Paranoia that Divate had first written in Marathi in 2020 The collection which won him the Maharashtra State Kavi Keshavsut Purskar has now been translated into English by Dalvi This is not the first time the two have worked with each other During the pandemic Divate translated Dalvirsquos poignant collection Walk into Marathi His poems paid tribute to the millions of Indian workers ldquoalready living precariously between village and the cityrdquo who were turned into migrants in their own land Their writing through their translations continue to rub off on each otherldquoI met Hemant sometime in 2011 when the Alliance Franccedilaise de Bombay had invited three Indian poets Dalvi Divate and Sampurna Chattarji to Marseille as part of a fiveday exchange programme While the French poets were expected to translate our works we had to translate theirsrdquo remembers Dalvi when we catch him at JJ on a rainy afternoon Since the French poets didnrsquot know Marathi Dalvi recalls translating Divatersquos poems to English Thatrsquos how it all began he informs Their first project together was Struggles with Imagined Gods a poetry book of Divatersquos that Dalvi brought to life in English ldquoHe Divate is very much rooted in the contemporary and Bombay becomes an obvious sight for his poemsrdquo he says adding ldquoThere was a time when he would refer to his work as POGO post globalisation poemshellip he would talk about popular culture obsession with the material aspiration and contemporary liferdquoOur conversation is interrupted by a phone call Divate is on the other end and is asking for directions Dalvi suddenly lapses into Marathi telling him to come to the room across the corridor Divate joins us minutes later Dalvi continues ldquoHis poems also critique the language in which he is writing and how it is changing and the nature of poetryrdquo In Paranoia a collection of 40 poems he says therersquos a slight shift ldquoThe general atmosphere around us today has changed and that has influenced his poems Therefore these poems are both subdued and darker with an underlying ragerdquoDivate who as publishermdashhis imprint Poetrywala turned 20 this yearmdashhas published over 150 books feels that Dalvi ldquohas a very Bombay style of writingrdquo ldquoAll of his works are rooted in the city Sometimes when I see what he comes up with it I feel jealousrdquo he says The last work of Dalvirsquos that he translated were his poems from the book Walk ldquoHe wrote about migration and pain in a very playful languagerdquo Divate remembers ldquoThere are multiple layers in his Dalvi writing In the first layer only words reach out to you and in the second you experience a lot of emotions The kind of reader that I am I can see both the layersrdquo Walk was also translated into Gujarati by Udayan Thakker and Hindi by Dalvi himself All the four translations were published together in one book Divate also hoped that the blind would discover it in Braille ldquoWe were in talks with an association and perhaps it will in good timerdquo he saysDalvi was quite impressed with Divatersquos translation of Walk ldquoHe uses a variety of MarathismdashI donrsquot want to use the word dialectsmdashin different poems That enhances the reading experiencerdquo he thinks ldquoAt no point does it feel like a translation because of thatrdquo The other delight Dalvi says is watching Divate read his poems aloud ldquoHe is gregarious outgoinghellip thatrsquos an experiencerdquoTranslating each otherrsquos works involves a lot of back and forth especially after the manuscript is complete and they often agree to disagree Irrespective they are both very devoted Divate says ldquoit often feels like we are working on our own poems rather than each otherrsquosrdquo ldquoWe are foodies as well so itrsquos so much fun when we sit down togetherhellip eating and creatingrdquo he saysThat Divate travels the world for poetrymdashonly recently he attended the Slovenia Live Literature Festivalmdashdoes great service to Indian poetry says Dalvi Divatersquos works have been translated in Arabic German Spanish Irish Estonian ldquoA lot of this has come out of travellingrdquo says Dalvi Next on their agenda is not another translation but a trip abroad ldquoIn 2024 we plan to return to Marseille and revive those memoriesrdquo