Clarification
to
Dear Sir,
I
am constrained to bring to your notice certain facts regarding the article “Bharati’s Kuyil Song: An
Assessment” by R. Subramanian published in the
April-June 1980 issue of Triveni.
The
bulk of the article is made up of a summary of Bharati’s
poem. This long summary which is found on pages, 60-62 has been taken bodily
from my book Bharati in English Verse (Higginbothams, 1958), pages 34-37. There is but a solitary ambiguous
reference to my book on page 62 of Triveni which, however, does not
indicate that the preceding eleven paragraphs some of them quite long) are from
it, as there are no quotation marks or any other frames of reference. Nor has
Mr. Subramanian mentioned anywhere that the English
versions of Bharati’s poems used by him are by me.
I
am pained that a journal of such fine reputation has been taken for a ride by
the author of the article. The whole thing raises the suspicion that the rest
of the essay might also not be quite authentic, I hope you will kindly publish
this clarification to highlight the need for literary integrity and authorial
honesty in works of criticism.
1-8-1980