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No Other World
Kunwar Narain has made a name for himself in Hindi literature. His poems are replete with intensity and poignancy and are submerged in emotions and deep thoughts. What strikes the reader most is that he is carried away by the flow of emotions. See the intensity of thought in the poem Remaining: "Between getting life fully/and giving if fully/a full death mark is there" or in A Strange Day, "He roamed about all day to day `85 And the strangest miracle was that coming home I found not another but myself come back there". His poems are very pithy and remarkable. One feel it is going to be an ordinary poem but just in the last few lines so much thought is packed in. Based on the famous episode of the Mahabharta, the poem Chakravyuh brings out beautifully the emotions of the unvanquished Abhimanyu who is "anointed to be killed/ `85 a pain that innocents bore". The poet concludes with a hard reality "that the brave guardians of the siege/who sided with their own, not truth/were cowards bent on deception/ `85 and times eternal circular siege/sides with none". Kunwar Narain has displayed his unparalled creative power in his poems. In Epoch of Today, he tells us subtly that our country has broken up so many times, yet it "will look pieced together/ like the map of India". The loss of glory of India hurts him badly. The same thought underlies in Front of A Burnt House, "He has fallen in thought/such a big halo of light/that came out daily the from east/ has it too been swallowed by same night?" The poet enhances the beauty of short poems by providing metaphysical end. They begin on the earthly level, but the last few lines raise them to higher level. River in the Boat is a fine example in this respect. "It is a river/it is dark/ `85 finally comes to a higher level `85 And cannot fathom/who is plunged in whom? And who must go beyond whom? The same characteristics are found in If I Return this Time. "If I return this time `85 I return more complete." After this journey on the earth is complete, the poet presumes, he will return home a ‘perfect’ man. Another quality of Kunwar Narain’s poetry is the endearing flights of imagination therein. Note the lovely lines in Horoscope, where he admires the dew "dribbling luminous dots into petals/with nibs of sunlight/ what astrologer assembled the difficult horoscope/of this shimmering firmament"; similarly, in Two Shadow Pictures, "The river darling’s son/ `85 drinks milk in bliss/from the moon’s silver bowl/that glitters". Kunwar Narain doesn’t live in the ivory tower; rather he is very much concerned about the present time. To take an example, in Spring has Arrived, he writes: "Do they not know that/in the cities it is strictly proscribed/to speak to a stranger and say/look, spring has arrived". Nature provides him sustenance and succour. Longingly does he remember the village neem tree under whose shade he spent his childhood and the time when its flowers fell on his father’s shroud `85 "as if falling from mothers hair/tiny flowers that were not tears/but seeming consolations". One admires the poet’s genial love for nature. The poet very candidly admits contradiction or confusion that he comes across. This leads to a feeling of restlessness in his poetry, as Girdher Rathi opines: "`85 the poetry is a deep connection with inner dilemmas." Obviously, there is a rich diversity in his poetry—dramatic, metaphysical, historical and topical. The poems display his intellect and anguish at the loss of old values of life. He deserves a special place in Hindi literature, and so does Apurva Narian who has put in tremendous efforts in translating his eminent father’s poetry into English. He has done full justice to the nuances of both the languages. The translation gives us an impressive view of the man and his commendable poetic genius.
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A
collection of the renowned and distinguished living Hindi poet Kunwar
Narian’s poems, translated by Apurva Narian, No Other World, is
an important addition to English literature. The later has made
creditable effort in presenting Kunwar Narian’s poems to all those not
conversant with the vernacular.