Dr Meena Shrivastava
– “Letters written by Mona Lisa and Vinci to each other…Part-1” – Ms. Mohini Hedau – ☆ English Verson – Dr Meena Shrivastava ☆
(This is a freelance translation loosely based on the original chapters written by Mrs Mohini Hedau in her Marathi book entitled ‘Manatle (मनातलं)’ Based on central theme of an imaginary exchange of letters between the great painter (and much more) Leonardo da Vinci and his immortal creation Mona Lisa, the four letters take you to the world of an artist and his ‘Still’ creation.)
‘The Mona Lisa’ is a half-length portrait painting by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci, regarded as the most valuable painting of the world. The creator of this amazing and marvelous painting Vinci was a polymath, brilliant world-famous painter and a renowned architect. He studied in depth anatomy and physiology of human body through his dissecting skills.
I am crystalizing in words the thoughts that arose in my mind, when I saw the painting ‘The Mona Lisa’. Just as Mona Lisa is a fiction, so are these letters!
It may be called as a wide and wild contemplation.
* Part One *
- The letter of Mona Lisa to Leonardo da Vinci
I have been thinking for many days, rather centuries to write to you, but ultimately gathered courage now to write to you.
So many things accumulated for long…
To start with, how should I address you?
Should I address you as my father?
But you belong to mortal human race, whereas I as a creation, though inanimate object come under the category of ‘immortal’!
No, No!
Brahma? The creator of Universe! Yes, that seems appealing, you wrote my destiny…….!
And you created me with your own hands.
You drew my sketch and filled me with realistic colours, so majestically that I became exceptional beauty, but a beauty masked by curse.
One eye of mine is smiling lovingly, whereas the other one is shedding tears! But this very unique thing made it a classy painting of a ‘beauty’. I attained unparalleled name and fame all over the world, a value of lakhs and lakhs dollars!
You are the creator, you are the gifted and talented one!
You are a biologist, scientists are still engaged in exploring the research you did centuries back!
You are a majestic architect.
In fact you are a polymath!
But……
Didn’t you feel like asking me even once, as to why I was shedding tears?
You didn’t even bother to find out the reason behind it……
Why so?
But you marketed this very agony of mine.
And by the way, you didn’t even feel like allowing me to weep with both eyes, so that the catharsis would lead to shedding the free flow of incessant tears……
You have not given a thought over allowing me to laugh heartily like jaunty, cheerful and innocent young girl…..
Or you wanted me to be like a masterpiece?
A unique designer beautiful model?
- Vinci in reply to Mona Lisa’s letter
My dear child,
Got your letter.
My emotions are confluent with grief and happiness mingled hand in hand, after reading your heart rendering words! Is it really true? Have I imprisoned you in the chains of duel feelings? Are you floating and sinking on the waxing and waning tearful tides swarming with joy and sadness?
No my lovely baby, you are only mine,
You are not just my soulful creation of an art form called a painting, you are my dainty and delectable daughter in real sense!
My emotions and feelings were overflowing, when I was instilling life inside you with each line of colour drawn on canvas.
My genes were virtually getting transferred to you through the mere touch of my painting brush. It was no longer a simple medium to transfer colours on canvas.
Anthropology quotes that the daughter inherits genes from mother, it is undoubtedly a fact, but what about poor father?
Is it his destiny to be in frame of fiction for ever?
My darling, it was an era of 14th century. I was studying anatomy then.
In that period I visualized your picture in my dreams and may be in that phase of learning human body, I committed an error!
Is it possible to postulate and put on canvas each and every thought that origins in our heart and soul?
I hope dear, you realize that it is not possible.
With the in depth studies of carbon dating, now I can predict from which tree your canvas might have been manufactured. Is it likely that the canvas too might be sadly shedding silent tears, thinking about the blows borne by the innocent tree? Can it happen that with the involvement of similar kind of distressful sufferings it is bonding with you? It may have entangled you with the tightening tentacles of torment.
Do you want to set yourself free from all these bonds?
Hey my child! From now on, be happy, that I free you from every bond of every kind!
Please feel yourself as you wish to! Go, take a deep breath of fresh oxygen! Enjoy your freedom and fly high with the newly found wings!
But be sure, wherever you go, the world will recognize you only as my sole and soul creation!
Is it that easy to forget the signature remitted on your whole persona by your own genus?
But you are welcome to establish your own independent identity. I would love to see you grooming yourself in that manner!
I am fully aware that you hate your painter.
You can now learn musical notes, let your soul dance daringly and liberally on those notes.
Oh not again! I apologise! Am I committing the same mistake by creating a new version of yours?
My loving daughter, please forgive me! Enjoy life as you want to! For it’s your life!
To be continued…
© Dr Meena Shrivastava
Thane
Mobile no-9920167211
Email- [email protected]
≈ Editor – Shri Hemant Bawankar/Editor (English) – Captain Pravin Raghuvanshi, NM ≈
