Experience of Translating Kunwar Narain’s Poetry

The essays on translation in this book reimagine the poetry of Kunwar Narain, a seminal literary figure of modern times. His diverse, profoundly human, and cosmopolitan oeuvre—a distinctive, if somewhat underexplored, cornerstone of contemporary Indian literature—has seen growing interest. The essays dwell on the dual experience of his poetry and of translating it, foregrounding the intimate relation between the two.

Originating from an international symposium on the poet in Switzerland, the volume draws on aesthetic, practical, and linguistic considerations to interrogate the landscape of literary and intersemiotic translation, navigating a mix of approaches and challenges. It brings together voices from Europe, India, and America working in eight languages—including the visual language of cinema—with reflections by translators, poets, and scholars. Its publication also marks Narain’s birth centenary in 2027.

This first-of-its-kind collection melds three literary and academic streams: Narain’s poetry as an instance of new Hindi poetics, translation studies, and South Asian studies. Its eclectic exploration of poetry translation will speak to a range of audiences—lovers of world literature, those interested in translation, and researchers at the intersections of language, culture, and creativity.

Nicola Pozza is a senior lecturer at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. His current project examines the construction of the Himalayan space in twentieth- and twenty-first-century Hindi travelogues. Besides publishing essays on Hindi literature, he authored a two-volume French manual on Hindi (Le hindi… comme en Inde, 2022 and 2023) and co-edited India in Translation through Hindi Literature (2010). He has translated Geetanjali Shree’s novel Khālī jagah (Une place vide, 2018) and a selection of Kunwar Narain’s poems (Confluences, 2025) into French.

Apurva Narain is a literary translator, writer, and editor. As Kunwar Narain’s son, he oversees his father’s literary estate and has edited some of his later works. His English translations of Kunwar Narain’s works include the poetry collections No Other World (2008) and Witnesses of Remembrance (2021); and the co-translated story collection The Play of Dolls (2020). His work has appeared in several journals and anthologies. He has had professional interests in international development, ecology, and public health ethics.