The Translingual Poetics of Robin S. Ngangom: Exploring Cultural Translation and Identity in His Poetry

Robin S. Ngangom, a bilingual poet from Manipur, India, navigates the complexities of cultural translation and identity through his poetry in English and Manipuri (Meiteilon). His work, deeply rooted in the socio-political and cultural landscape of Northeast India, engages with themes of displacement, memory, and resistance. This research paper examines Ngangom’s translingual poetics, focusing on how his dual linguistic practice facilitates a dialogue between personal and collective identities, mediated by cultural translation. By analyzing key poems from his collections—Words and the Silence (1988), Time’s Crossroads (1994), The Desire of Roots (2006), and My Invented Land (2023)—this study explores how Ngangom negotiates the tensions between regional specificity and universal resonance, employing translation as both a linguistic and cultural act. Drawing on postcolonial and translation theories, the paper argues that Ngangom’s poetry redefines identity through a translingual framework, resisting homogenization and asserting the plurality of Northeast Indian experiences.