"I chose to rewrite it in poetry because the original Ramayana was in poetry- the fact is, it’s sort of been corrupted into prose. In its original form it was an epic poem rather like the Iliad or works of that sort. Rather than traditional poetry, it was a verse novel, without a traditional structure. What I most wanted to do was to preserve the essential musicality of the lines. Especially as the Ramayana like so many stories, was based on a fundamentally oral tradition."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
On reworking the Ramayana in “An Interview With Daljit Nagra” in The Bubble (September 17, 2014)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Daljit_Nagra
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Daljit Nagra
Daljit Nagra (born 1966) is a British poet of Indian ancestry whose debut collection, Look We Have Coming to Dover!, was published in February 2007.
7 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Daljit Nagra →
Related Quotes
"Poetry…is an espresso shot of thought and public poetry is as necessary as it ever was."
"I didn’t want to write it in OED English…As I was writing more and more I was aware that I was having it filtered thr…"
"Poetry was a meeting of mind and heart, I felt at one with poetry itself. I like the concentrated language, the play …"
"Look We Have Coming to Dover!"
"All the girls say they love me all their mums say I'm lovely — ever since I lived in the clouds."
"You either do it quietly and describe the Indian community in half a dozen poems or you think sod it, and go all out.…"
"I never really had any aspirations to be an actor when I was young. I wanted to play the piano in a bar, to be the ol…"
"If I do decide one day to stop acting, I just hate the idea of people going: 'Oh, did you ever do anything else besid…"
"I don't really know how to act, I kind of wanted to somehow make it real, and one of the ways I've always thought mak…"
""Lest that by any means When I have preached to others I myself Should be a castaway." If some one now Would take tha…"