| May
3, 2001
STAFF Q&A/An expatriate poet finds inspiration in the tensions of
immigrant life.
“I have this urge
to express all this pent-up emotion.”
BY SARA MARCUS
Naik pulls
a copy of her “Collected Poems” off the Van Pelt-Dietrich
shelf. Below: a poem from the book with English translation.
The Living
Room
I reorganize my living room
asking each piece
where it would like to be placed.
I give a new spot to the sofa and the lamp,
change the drapes, and
replace the old rug with a wall-to-wall carpet.
The living room with its new décor
looks precise and proper.
When everything is thus in place
I begin to wonder!
where among these things
should I place myself?
__________________
PANNA NAIK
Position:
Cataloguer, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library
Length of service:
37 years
Other stuff:
Holds master's degrees in Gujarati and Sanskrit literature, library
science and South Asian studies; taught Gujarati at Penn for 17
years.
__________________
Photo by Tommy Leonardi
|
Panna Naik, a cataloguer in Van Pelt-Dietrich Library, writes books of
poetry that hold first prize from a state government, are required reading
at her alma mater and have earned her a national reputation as a pioneering
feminist poet.
Haven’t heard of her? That might be because all these accolades take
place in Naik’s native country of India. She moved to the United
States with her husband more than 40 years ago but remains relatively
unknown here because she writes in her native tongue, the northwest Indian
language Gujarati, and has not yet published any volumes in English.
Sitting on the top floor of Van Pelt, Naik talked about her career as
an expatriate poet and the universal struggles of being a writer.
Q. When did you start writing poetry?
A. I’m a late bloomer. I always wanted to be a poet but I never
wrote anything till 1972.
It has something to do with Philadelphia, I guess. Something happened
here. I mean, [in Bombay] I had lived in an extended family of 25 people.
and then when I came here all of a sudden I felt that I couldn’t
relate to a lot of people, and I felt really lonely and isolated. I have
this urge to express all this pent-up emotion.
And then once I heard Anne Sexton on television. I started reading her
poems and somehow I could relate to her very much. I think she was in
therapy at that time and that her therapist had told her to write, write
without any inhibition. And I said, I have a lot to say, why don’t
I try? And then I wrote a few poems and I showed them to a friend of mine.
I told him, Don’t read these in front of me, please, take them home.
And he took them home and immediately he called and he said, Oh my God,
these are great poems, why don’t you write? And that’s it. That
is one of the best days in my life.
Q. Why do you call yourself a feminist poet?
A. I wanted to write whatever I felt like, and I wanted to express
myself in a male-dominated society. Before I started writing, there were
poems about women [in Gujarati], but all written by men. So I wanted to
write about women’s point of view and women’s sensitivity and
sensibilities. And especially coming from an Indian background, there
were some topics that were sort of taboo. People never talked about sex
or menstruation or childlessness or man-woman relationships which had
gone sour, things like that. And I knew a lot of women, and I wanted to
give voice to those women, not just me. In that sense I’m a feminist.
Q. What are other issues you address in your writing?
A. How I view India, sitting here 10,000 miles away. I write about
the United States because I’m an insider and I’m also an outsider.
I write about nature. Some of these experiences one can never have sitting
in India: falling snow or daffodils or cherry blossoms. These things are
very exciting. I have written a lot of poems about my mother after my
mother passed away.
Q. Do you have a writing routine?
A. I used to. I used to do it over the weekends, I would just get
up, have my tea, turn off the telephone, and I would write till 11 or
noon every Saturday, every Sunday. I’m not doing that any more. I
wish I could go back to that.
I believe that one should write every day. Otherwise they become very
rusty and you don’t know where to begin. Beginning is very, very
hard, to just sit down and write. Inertia — I mean I always find
other things to do. Always, always. Laundry, ironing, cooking, this, that,
and at the back of mind I say, No, I should be doing this. Nobody’s
going to remember whether I cleaned my house or that I fed people. This
is very important. I know that. I just — I work under pressure.
Q. Have you tried to write poetry in English?
A. I have, but it doesn’t work. I’ve grown up with this
language, I can express myself very well. I can’t do that well in
English. I speak well, I think in English, I write in English, I have
no problem. But when it comes to creative writing —
I’ve done some translations but a lot gets lost in translation. I
am working on a bilingual edition of my work in Gujarati and English.
Q. What’s your biggest challenge in writing?
A. The short story form. It looks very easy; it’s very deceptive.
I know what I want to say but sometimes I don’t know how to say.
It’s like swimming. I know how to swim, intellectually. But when
I go into the water I cannot swim. I cannot! It’s the same thing
about the short story.
Q. Why is your second book of poetry called “Philadelphia”?
A. Every single poem is written in Philadelphia. I have not written
a single poem in India or anywhere else. Something about this house, something
about this city. I owe it to Philadelphia. Because sometimes when people
say, Oh, do you think you’ll go back? I say, Listen, even if I go
back, the creativity that this city has given me, where am I going to
find that?
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