Manipur’s Iron Lady Sharmila melts heart with verses

Irom Sharmila’s iron resolve may have failed to move the mighty democratic country, but her verses have surely cast an impact on its citizens. And hopefully this will galvanise public opinion in her favour.

From being an activist, she’s now Irom Sharmila the poet. Verses penned by the Manipur’s Iron Lady have traversed beyond the North East to inspire many in South and North India as well.

The 39-year-old Manipur woman has been on a fast since 2001, demanding repeal of the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act.

Sharmila’s collection of poems titled ‘Fragrance of Peace’ which has already been widely acclaimed in North India, has been translated into Tamil, while its Kannada translation is in the pipeline.

According to Preeti Gill of the Zubaan Books, publisher of Sharmila’s book, the public response has been extremely good, and it has been widely accepted by all age groups for the ‘honesty and simplicity’ in the poems.

The book was first launched on November 2, 2012 to coincide with the 11th year of her fast.

“We are aware of Sharmila’s struggle, and publishing this book was a part of our support to her. The earnings from this book are passed over to her struggle,” said Gill.

Gill further added, “The response has been far above our expectations and it was encouraging to see people from Delhi and other northern states rushing to buy the book.”

Taking note of this overwhelming response, the publisher had decided to translate the book into south Indian languages as well.

“Famous Tamil author CP Lakshmi translated the book into Tamil and it has already received overwhelming response from the Tamil readers,” said Gill.

She further added that considering the response from the Tamil readers, Zubaan Books was also contemplating on translating Sharmilas’s verses to Kannada and, if possible, to other Indian languages too.

“We have already been approached by several leading Kannada writers expressing their desire to translate her book, but we are yet to decide on this,” added Gill.

According to leading writers of the North East region, Sharmila’s poems are full of emotions and have the unique capacity to ‘move’ people.

“I have read her book and I have found it very touching. It is said that her work has not been given the due credit it deserves,” said Rita Chowdhury, a leading author from the North East and a Sahitya Akademi award winner.

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