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I Will Not Go: Translations, Transformations, and Chutney Fractals
Playful and celebratory, yet also mourning the loss of language, this poetry anthology revives the fading tradition of Caribbean Hindustani songs
In a new groundbreaking anthology, award-winning poet, memoirist and translator Rajiv Mohabir (born 1981) engages with Indo-Caribbean language and culture, this time by inviting 17 diasporic writers to experiment with their own personal interpretations of two famous Chutney songs. Chutney music is a syncretic, Caribbean music born out of North Indian tunes and African beats. Caribbean Hindustani songs and poems, the basis for Chutney music, are no longer spoken with the frequency that they were two generations ago. To this end, Mohabir asked some of the most exciting Caribbean writers and poets working today to “translate” two popular Chutney songs. A Caribbean diasporic response in the manner of Eliot Weinberger’s Nineteen Ways of Looking at Wang Wei, this book expands on the idea of that translation classic with reimaginings, reinterpretations and compelling treatises on Chutney music. I Will Not Go collects poetry inherited by the descendants of indenture and, through its innovative reimagining, celebrates the poetry of survival.
Contributors Anita Baksh, Divya Persaud, Eddie Bruce-Jones, Miranda Rachel Deebrah, Will Depoo, Anu Lakhan, Simone Devi Jhingoor, Natasha Ramoutar and more.
In a new groundbreaking anthology, award-winning poet, memoirist and translator Rajiv Mohabir (born 1981) engages with Indo-Caribbean language and culture, this time by inviting 17 diasporic writers to experiment with their own personal interpretations of two famous Chutney songs. Chutney music is a syncretic, Caribbean music born out of North Indian tunes and African beats. Caribbean Hindustani songs and poems, the basis for Chutney music, are no longer spoken with the frequency that they were two generations ago. To this end, Mohabir asked some of the most exciting Caribbean writers and poets working today to “translate” two popular Chutney songs. A Caribbean diasporic response in the manner of Eliot Weinberger’s Nineteen Ways of Looking at Wang Wei, this book expands on the idea of that translation classic with reimaginings, reinterpretations and compelling treatises on Chutney music. I Will Not Go collects poetry inherited by the descendants of indenture and, through its innovative reimagining, celebrates the poetry of survival.
Contributors Anita Baksh, Divya Persaud, Eddie Bruce-Jones, Miranda Rachel Deebrah, Will Depoo, Anu Lakhan, Simone Devi Jhingoor, Natasha Ramoutar and more.
204 pages, Paperback
Published October 8, 2024
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December 30, 2024
it’s rare reading literature about indo-caribbeans and even being written by someone of a west-indian background.
“I Will Not Go” is the first of its own of an anthology of poems/ translations of two popular chutney songs by two different trinidadians singers: one hindu and muslim to reflect on the “diversity and flexibility in Caribbean performance” and just bringing the oral traditions into words.
as someone with a indo-guyanese background, i would never think how dark these songs truly are that typically played at joyous time like a wedding. it makes me feel more connected to the oral stories/ poems that my ancestors must have heard, felt or even went through.
“I Will Not Go” is the first of its own of an anthology of poems/ translations of two popular chutney songs by two different trinidadians singers: one hindu and muslim to reflect on the “diversity and flexibility in Caribbean performance” and just bringing the oral traditions into words.
as someone with a indo-guyanese background, i would never think how dark these songs truly are that typically played at joyous time like a wedding. it makes me feel more connected to the oral stories/ poems that my ancestors must have heard, felt or even went through.
Displaying 1 of 1 review