Dinkar

This is the 100th Idle Thought I have had in this space. My blog completes a century! :-)

And what better way to celebrate, than with a long-loved poem, by my favorite poet - Ramdhari Singh 'Dinkar'. A very bried introduction of the poet, for the uninitiated - Dinkar was known as 'Aag ka Kavi' [The poet of fire], for his poems raised the voice of the oppressed - in the pre-independence era, he fought for freedom; post independence, he stood by the poor and unprivileged. His repertoire also includes a number of poems celebrating beauty and love.

Amongst the treasures I found at the book fair, there is a collection of Dinkar's poems published by Bhartiya Jnanpith; the poems selected by the poet himself. It is a lovely, hard-bound edition, titled 'Sanchiyata' [The Collection]. My only lament is that it does not contain two of my favorite poems - 'Aag ki bhikh' and 'Kalam Aaj Unki Jai Bol' [these phrases can be translated as 'Begging for fire' and 'O Pen! Hail those (heroes)']. But what I did find, was a poem I had been searching for a long time [even pleaded bloggers for it :-)] - a poem that I had read in school in textbook - a four para poem, 'Kyun Yeh Aag Bujhaoge' [Why will you douse this fire'. And what I also found was that, those four paragraphs were part of a longer poem 'Bharat ka Reshmi Nagar' [The silken city of India], i.e. Delhi - the centre for power and wealth.

And the lines I had been lookng around for years? Here goes ...

Reshmi kalam se bhagya-lekh likhne waalo.n
Tum bhi kabhi abhaavgrast ho roye ho?
Biimaar kisi bachhe ki davaa juTaane ko
Tum bhi kya ghar bhar peT baandh kar soye ho?

Asahaya kisaano.n ki kismat ko kheto.n mei.n
Anayaas jal mei.n bah jaate dekha hai?
Kya khayenge? yeh soch nirasha se paagal
Bechaaro.n ko cheekh rah jaate dekha hai?

Dekha hai graamo.n ki anek rambhaao.n ko
Jinki aabhaao.n par dhool abhi tal chaayee hai
Reshmi deh par jin ablaao.n ki ab tak
Resham kya? saari sahi nahin chadh paayee hai

Par tum nagaro.n ke laal, amiri ke putle
Kyun vyatha bhaagya hiino.n ke man mein laoge
Jalta ho saaraa desh kintu hokar adhiir
Tum daud daud kar kyun yeh aag bujhaaoge?


And an attempted translation ...

You, who write the destiny of others with a silken pen
Have you ever cried, suffering from acute deprivation?
To be able to buy medicine for a sick child,
Have you ever gone hungry, alongwith the whole family?

Have you seen the fate of helpless farmers
Being washed away by merciless flood waters?
Have you seen them cry out loud, all hope lost,
Thinking, what will they sustain on, the rest of the year?

Have you seen those village beauties
Whose radiance is still covered in dust?
These poor, helpless lasses cannot afford
Let alone silk, even simple dresses.

But you are living luxurious lives in cities,
Why would of think of the sorrows of the ill-fated?
The whole of the nation is ablaze,
But why will you get restless and rush to douse the fire?