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Born in 1922, Trilokinath Raina is a renowned
authority on Kashmiri literature. Besides
translating and editing a volume on modern
Kashmiri poetry, An Anthology of Modern Kashmiri
Verse, and speaking on post-Independence
Kashmiri poetry, he has also contributed to
traditional lyric-poetry of Kashmir by
translating works of poets like Habba Khaatoon
and Arnimaal into English. His translations from
Kashmiri have been periodically published in the
Vishvabharati Quarterly, Poetry India and Poetry
Eastwest.
Prof. Raina has taught English language and
literature at S. P. College in Srinagar, and the
universities of Banaras and Sugor. During
1961-64, the Government of India sent him on
deputation to Ethiopia as Professor of English
in the Haile Selassie I Military Academy, Harar.
He has also been Reader in English at the
National Defence Academy, Khadakvasla.
Habba Khaatoon & Arnimaal
Habba Khaatoon and Arnimaal pays tribute to the
lives and works of two of Kashmir's best-loved
lyric-poetry composers, Habba Khaatoon and
Arnimaal. Separated by at least two centuries,
both of them are acknowledged today as the
queens of Kashmiri lyric-poetry. While vaakh in
Kashmiri poetry is described as a vehicle for
expressing any mystical or spiritual experience,
vatsun gives voice to the pain and the ecstasy
of the human soul. Habba Khaatoon, who lived in
the sixteenth century, composed her legendary
vatsun, a tradition that Arnimaal continued two
hundred years later, in a style that was her
own. The volume contains a bilingual edition of
the Kashmiri verses alongside their English
rendition by Trilokinath Raina, who also
provides a detailed introduction to Habba
Khaatoon and Arnimaal. |
