Felt Like Writing in Hindi

अर्थ, काम, देह सब नश्वर है|
रूह को छूने वाला ही इश्वर है||
वो अतुल है, पावन है, वो पृथक है|
उसका मर्म, उसका ही जीवन सार्थक है||

पृथ्वी और अम्बर का अजब नाता है|
रूह की गहरायी शायद दर्शाता है||
आत्म का अस्तित्व तू ही है|
खुशी, चंचलता, हर्ष रूही है||

तेरा हर लफ्ज़ ज़िन्दगी के नए मायने सिखाता है|
करुणामयी पलकों को जैसे प्रेम से सहलाता है||
सरलता, सुमति, सौंदर्य का तू संगम है|
माया से मुक्त, तू ही खुशी, तू ही ग़म है||

From Wordsworth's 'Lines Written in Early Spring'

To her fair works did nature link
The human soul that through me ran;
And much it grieved my heart to think
What man has made of man.

High on Haiku

Some attempts by yours truly. My motto is:

We shall invent new forms of pain, and then find ways of inflicting them upon the world.

1.
Dark, damp, humid night;
A drop trickles down the neck.
Red! Equality!

2.
House on fire, flames leap,
Smouldering, scorching, savage.
Intertwined bodies.

The word haiku reminds me of the 90s song 'Hai huku hai huku hai hai...'. :D Makes me want to write a haiku using that.

Can you get any more pathetic than this? Try in the comments section.

From Alfred Tennyson's 'Maud'

There has fallen a splendid tear
From the passion-flower at the gate.
She is coming, my dove, my dear;
She is coming, my life, my fate;
The red rose cries, 'She is near, she is near;'
And the white rose weeps, 'She is late;'
The larkspur listens, 'I hear, I hear;'
And the lily whispers, 'I wait.


SO cute! :)

Creativity

There's a Ghazal by Jeet Thayil that I'm reproducing here. It's one of my favorite pieces of poetry, mainly because of the flow. It's such a pleasure reading this one aloud.

Listen! Someone’s saying a prayer in Malayalam.
He says there’s no word for ‘despair’ in Malayalam.

Sometimes at daybreak you sing a Gujarati garba.
At night you open your hair in Malayalam….

…Visitors are welcome in The School of Lost Tongues.
Someone’s endowed a high chair in Malayalam.

I greet you my ancestors, O scholars and linguists.
My father who recites Baudelaire in Malayalam.

Jeet, such drama with the scraps that you know.
Write a couplet, if you dare, in Malayalam.

Here's a link to a page with two short stories of Angela Carter. Both of them are rewrites of the 'Little Red Riding Hood'. I had read the first one a couple of years ago. While looking for it today, I came across the second rewrite, which is a little longer. Haven't yet read it but I can bet it's going to be as good and innovative as the first one.


If anyone's interested in a review of the linguistics in Amitava Ghosh's new book 'Sea of Poppies' by Jai Arjun Singh, it can be found here. Click here for Ghosh's full-length interview with Singh.