This is a series of Interviews which were given by Sri Sri to different new papers in Andhra Pradesh. I shall also include as future updates, Sri Sri in Madras Council when he was a Member of Legislative Council (MLC) and also his interview in America, during his 1981 visit.

This interview appeared in Indian Express, Hyderabad edition dated Mar 2nd 1980.

70 Minutes With Sri Sri

Q: Recently one analyst said that you had teacher in Edgar Allen Poe and Baudelaire. How do you wish to react to the suggestion that you had equally good teachers from Telugu Poetry too?

A: Not Only Edgar Allen Poe and Charles Baudelaire. So many others have influenced me. Borders of poetry are getting reduced. We are accustomed now to view poetry in world perspective and whenever there is good poetry, we are imbibing it. For this, translations are absolutely necessary. Good poetry would never suffer in translation.

Q: What were the goals of the progressive movement in poetry when you were making a mark of your own?

A: At that time there was a social setup (social system). Even today the set up is the same. There is the Capitalist set up. When we began writing the kind of poetry (what had come to be known as progressive poetry), our goal was definitely communism or at least Socialism. With that view we wrote progressive poetry and we decried romantic poetry. As I said somewhere else, I have celebrated the man in the street and condemned the man in the clouds. There is more realism and less and less romanticism. There are the essential features of progressive poetry and we did believe that if we proceeded this way we were sure to achieve socialism. But socialism cannot be achieved by poetry. It will be achieved by other means, but necessary mental make -up… (Would be provided by new poetry) or new poetry would transform the ways of our thinking. We decry superstitious beliefs. We try to inculcate rationalistic, scientific view of things. These are the essentials features of progressive poetry.

Q: But are you not equally influenced by the romantic age of the Telugu poetry?

A: That when I was a boy and still finding my expression.

Q: Why do people in leftist organizations of extreme nature think that poetry can do a lot for the common man when less of it is read by them …

A: You are thinking about the present state affairs. This is bound to change. There would be more changes. If more people are educated, new poets would arrive. They will begin to attract new generation of educated populace.

Q: When poetry is essentially read and enjoyed by the privileged few you are called "Prajakavi" ….

A: "Prajakavi" means people's poet. In our society 75% of our people are illiterate and I write poetry, and it won't reach the masses. That is why I have made a distinction. There are languages of "haves" and "have-nots". The culture of "haves" is bourgeoisie culture---dead culture. I am condemning this and the culture of "have-nots" is the proletarian culture and I am trying to uphold and glorify the proletarian culture.

Q: When you translate those poets from other languages what attracts you to select the piece? Is it essentially the social philosophy of the poet?

A: Certainly. Unless a poet is committed to society in which he is living, unless he is aware or his responsibility towards society, he cannot write significant poetry. He may write escapist poetry, but that is a different thing.

Q: Does this mean that poetry in the past is simply a relic of a bygone-era?

A: Leave alone the past. In the past, there was court poetry, poetry of literate people, poetry of the haves. At the same time there was a whole folklore culture. You must not forget it. There were so many folklore forms of expression. There were folklore dramas, folklore songs. All these things are living even today. They belong to the second line culture and the proletarians, culture of the worker, culture if the people. They are great people I say…

Q: You are telling about the committed poets. When poetry is all pervading than the class interests, don't you think that these kinds of committed poets miss the real charm of poetry?

A: That depends on how you look at these things. If you are a Rama Bhakta and appreciate a dong or dance or drama, my poetry would not appeal to you. On the other hand my poetry rejects all things because of my commitment is absolutely necessary. Unless, you are committed to a certain view of life and a certain direction, in which this life should become, you cannot become an authentic poet. That commitment gives strength to your poetic utterance.

Q: Some of the researchers and interpreters talk so much of symbolism in your poetry. Sometimes they appear to over glorify what you have written. Do you think that what they are painting you as you are?

A: Symbolism was a phase in the poetic development and what we call symbols may also be described as metaphors or conventional alankaras. When you come across a brilliant metaphor, you are attracted by that and you need not make too much of that metaphor. You have to know what it symbolizes it what it signifies.

Q: I put forth an example from your poetry. On "YAMUNI MAHISPAHU LOHA CHANTALU" --- people made a lot about it and write extensively even on such a symbol…

A: Perhaps that is a classical symbol or "pauranic" symbol. Similarly when I wrote "harom harom hara harom harom hara harom hara ani kadalandi" --- people said that Sri Sri was a great Vaishnavite or Shivite poet. He turned religious, (and all that)… But it is a battle cry. Suppose I say, "Allaho Akbar"_ do you mean to say that I am a Muslim? "Allaho Akbar" is a battle cry. Similarly this "harom hara hara hara" is also a battle cry. May be because I happen to be a Hindu it has taken that form (Harom hara hara hara).

Q: There is an opinion that you did not translate much of the Russian poetry to the extent you are expected to.

A: That is because (…pause…) there are other poets French poets, Spanish, English. It is for other people to do all these things. I cannot do it single handed…

Q: Now that you are 70, what is your estimate on your own poetic works and their impact on Telugu in the next few decades?

A: Well I have done something. I do not say that I have wasted my life or anything of that sort. But I still believe that there is much writing left for me. So I will be going on writing not only poetry but I will tackle other forms of literary things. The impact of not only my writing but that of my generation of poets will certainly work on the next generation of poets and this generation will be more social minded, conscious of society around them: their social responsibility. More and more young people will be attracted towards this king of looking at things.

Q: Are not these young poetic writes attracted towards the slogan poetry?

A: May be. Sometimes it happens. "Workers of the world Unite" as a slogan is a mere conglomeration of words. But it is one of those slogans which has transformed the world.

Q: Has it any poetic strength in it?

A: Can a slogan be poetry--- that is what you are asking. "Garibi hatao" is also a slogan.

Q: It is no poetry at all…

A: It can become a piece of poem if the poet has given (it) a poetic shape. We need not decry slogans as such. But slogans must have some generating dynamo which transforms the same slogan into the stuff of poetry.

Q: Are you a votary to the present campaign of mini poetry, delivered in bundles?

A: That is because of our capitalistic society. We are having many numbers of magazines weeklies, monthlies, fortnightlies, and other literary journals. We have got to feed them. If you write Mahucharitra today there is nobody to publish it. A weekly magazine will devote a page or two to poetry. The editor wants to satisfy half-a-dozen poets in that limited space. That is how mini poetry has come about.

Q: Do you think that there is real difference of goals set for the progressive poetry and revolutionary poetry?

A: Progressive poetry was revolutionary at one time. It has now become a conventional poetry. It was a revolt against "Bhavakavitvam" which was ruling the literary stage and the progressive poets rebelled against it. And they have written "Adhyudaya Kavitvam". Many years have passed by now and nobody think of "Bhavakavitvam" today. From the progressive poetry there is further step of progressive, that is revolutionary poetry.

Q: Would you still like to go back to the fold of "VIRASAM"?

A: There is no question about going back: I am there. If anything more powerful and more revolutionary than "VIRASAM" come is, I will desert it. But I won't go back to the previous milestone.

Q: There is a feeble attempt on the part of some Virasam that you must not accept the felicitations organized by the bourgeois culture…

A: They have gotten certain crude notions that if I accept the sanmanam it means that I am sold out. A capitalist, Ramanaiah Raja awarded me Rs. 10,000. Does it mean that he has become a communist or that I have sold my poetry to him? I don't take this (Kakinada function) as sanmanam. This was only a birth day celebration. I have become 70. That exact date of birth is lost. Birthday is something to be celebrated. It is not that every day you get a birthday. Similarly 70th birthday will come only once. It is a milestone. So some friends wanted to celebrate it and I have accepted.

Q: Has the revolution of communism controlled the upbringing of the progressive poetry or provided some public attention to some poets…

A: Unfortunately the communist movement itself is divided into several factions. This is a drawback. The real need of the hour---the CPI and the CPM are realizing--is left front. Unity of all left forces irrespective of finer differences among themselves. Perhaps as time passes on more and more realization will dawn upon their minds, because left unity is absolutely essential. Because… neither the Congress regime nor the two year rule of Janata regime delivered any goods to make the nation completely cent per cent literate.

Q: Some of the party (Communist) workers respect you as their Guru. How do you account for the failure of the left parties in the recent 50 years of our communist movement?

A: 50 years is not a long period (for a political party to achieve or to be judged).

Q: One of your friends was commenting that Sri Sri's margam (way) was more important than Sri Sri's poetry.

A: What he (Kalipatnam Rama Rao) says is this. Sri Sri as a person is nothing. Sri Sri's margam is every thing

Q: What is Sri Sri's magram?

A: It is communism. Marxism-Leninism. Mine is maoist way.

Q: Do you have anything to say on "Anubhuti Kavitvam" (expressionism), now that "anubhuti" is being projected as a prime motive of any poetry?

A: I have not seen much of that poetry but it is another name of escapist poetry. It is an offshoot of "Bhavakavitvam" (romantic poetry).

Interviewed by Mr.Pannala Subrahmanya Bhatt for Indian Express on Mar 2nd 1980, on the eve of Sri Sri's 70th Birthday felicitations in Kakinada

Published - Indian Express & Andhra Prabha dailies, March 29th 1980 (only excerpts, this is the full interview)