Mamang Dai

Q: To quote poet and publisher P. Lal from his questionnaire sent in the 1960s to an earlier generation of Indian English poets: “What are the circumstances that led to your using the English language for the purpose of writing poetry?” And of course, is such a question relevant to today’s poets, several decades after Lal’s query?

M.D: What are the circumstances that led to writing poetry using English– I think the question is relevant (since it is still asked), or asked the other way round as to why we don’t write in our mother tongue. The answers are varied and continuing. There is, of course, the straight answer that many languages are non-script. The English language was the medium of instruction in schools and we use the language we learned to read and write in. Then there are exophonic writers, by choice. If a writer is comfortable using a different language why is mother tongue perceived to be more necessary to write in.

Q: In addition to poets from the Anglo-American canon, has your poetry been influenced by Indian English poets of an earlier generation (whether the 19th  century pioneers like Derozio and Toru Dutt, or early 20th  century poets like Tagore and Sarojini Naidu, or those from the post-1947 generation like Nissim Ezekiel, Kamala Das, and A.K. Ramanujan)? Do you consider your poetry a part of this two-hundred-year-old tradition?

M.D: I don’t know about feeling part of the two-hundred-year-old tradition!  I was reading Tagore quite a bit, and Kamala Das and Nissim Ezekiel. I just feel happy writing, and happy and inspired reading poetry from ancient times in ballads and sagas to modern times.

Q: What are your views on a readership/audience for Indian poetry in English? Does such a thing exist outside English classrooms and literary circles? How much of a consideration is the readership in your poetic
process?

M.D: Sometimes you read something and almost jump up in joy or fall off the chair. Such a thing is poetry. I think there will always be need for poetry. There is this happiness angle, the consolation and connection that makes us feel part of a larger reality that comes through with the beauty and power poetry.

When writing I don’t think of readership. At the most I might think of some friends and how we might be meeting and talking about, and pondering on the way we are!

Q: Do you read, write, or translate poetry in a language other than English? If yes, how does it influence your poetry in English?

M.D: No.

Q: Have you ever taught poetry in a class, at a workshop, or in an informal setting? If yes, which aspects of poetry do you think can be taught?

M.D:  No, never taught poetry.

Q: What are your views on the poetry that appears today on such popular social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram?

M.D: Actually I am not active on social media and I don’t know much about poetry on social media platforms. But during the Covid pandemic lockdown online poetry festivals were a lifeline—just to see poets coming forward and reading was succour indeed.

Mamang Dai is a poet and novelist from Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh. A former journalist, Dai also worked with World Wide Fund for nature in the Eastern Himalaya Biodiversity Hotspots programme.
In 2003 she received the state Verrier Elwin Award for her book Arunachal Pradesh, The Hidden Land featuring the culture, folklore and customs of Arunachal’s different communities. A Padma Shri awardee, Dai is a recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award 2017, for her novel The Black Hill, in English.
Dai lives in Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh, India.