BOOK LAUNCH
The Book Launch ceremony of ‘Shabnam’
the Hindi translated version of Shri Sujit Mukherjee’s English poems Dewdrops
took place on the evening of 10 Aug., 2019 at the New Friends Club in Noida by
Dr BSM Murty. It was a gala evening of poetry and music attended by poetry
lovers and admirers of the poet. After the book launch ceremony, Dr BSM Murty,
a former professor of English, made a short speech expounding on the art of
translation and poetry-writing. It was followed by musical performances and
recitations of Hindi poems by some young poets, and finally some English and
Hindi poems by Sujit Mukherjee and Dr BSM Murty. Given below is a short extract
from Dr BSM Murty’s speech.
Sujit Mukherjee’s Hindi poems ‘Shabnam’
By Dr BSM Murty
The Hindi translation of Sujit
Mukherji’s book ‘Dewdrops’ with the title ‘Shabanam’ is a beautiful collection
of his translated English poems translated by Shri Ishan Singh, another equally
talented poet. The English version was published last year as ‘Dewdrops’. There
could be no better title than ‘Dewdrops’ for these flower-fresh poems. When I
received the beautifully published copies of the English poems, they thrilled
me beyond measure and I spontaneously composed my own small poem
.
Little poems
–
Like dewdrops
Hanging fragile
On blossoms and petals
Often on twigs
and thorns -
Have come to me
Little poems like flowers
Glowing
with memories
Of the lovely times
When my garden, too,
Bloomed with
dew-decked roses -
Red, yellow, pink and purple
With twinkling dewdrops
On
their stunning faces
Iridiscent prism-like
Reflecting the glory
Of the world
and its Maker
Indeed, there can be
No better gift than poems
Transluscent and evanescent.
One poet has defined poetry as a ‘speaking picture’. Another says:
‘Painting is silent poetry, poetry is eloquent painting’. Words in a poem only
foreground the meaning. They delineate - in invisible lines and colours, images
and metaphors - the soul of the poem. Photography, a close cousin of painting,
is also a creative tool of discovering art in the ordinary. Where poetry
suggests, and painting invents, photography discovers. They employ similar
techniques, though with different materials – words, pigments and light, to
create art which communicates significant meaning.
Poetry is the art of making the invisible - visible.
It is an art of turning an idea -
into an image. An image - as metaphor slowly transforming itself into a
symbol. An idea - transforming through a symbol into a higher truth. The
reality of life transforming through symbolism into a higher reality. Poetry is
at once as physical as a fresh soft flower petal - and the dewdrop sleeping
momentarily on it. At the same time, it is as transcendental and evanescent as
the spiritual truth it communicates. It is an amazing mix- of the mundane and the supernal, the visible
and the invisible, the empirical and the visionary. As T.S. Eliot puts it
superbly, ‘poetry makes you feel a thought -
as immediately as the odour of a rose’. It reincarnates experience
- as ‘felt thought’. And for this
reincarnation, the poet often uses, what Eliot calls, an ‘objective
correlative’. Or words or images, or a situation through which the poet evokes
an emotion in the reader hat is like an echo of the poet’s own emotion. But all
this is only to say that poetry is an art of subtle communication - like
painting or music. 
I am sure you will see this when your hear this evening some of them
recited by the poet. All these poems bear
out these poetic characteristics in either form – English or Hindi. Sujit first
tried to capture the thoughts in English – because poems will always come in
their own language. But his poems were
so truly poetic that even in their Hindi
translation the subtlety of their communication is largely retained. In fact,
in true poetry, whatever be the language - meaning or communication lies beyond the words on the printed or
written page. Language serves merely as a ladder to ascend to the re-lived
experience. You may change the ladder, and still you can reach the realized
experience. Translation doesn’t kill poetry. On the contrary, it gives the poem
a new life.In fact, a good translation is a reverent tribute to the poet as
well as the poem itself.
Sujit has earned laurels for his poetry in English - multiplied
manifold by translations in many languages, national as well as international.
His fame as a poet is now truly international.
Poetry makes you attain emotional, spiritual peace and a strange
tranquillity. Remember these lines by Keats, one of the greatest poets ever.
Lines - showing how poetry transports you to a higher world. Listen to Keats:
I cannot see what flowers are at my feet,
Nor
what soft incense hangs upon the boughs,
But, in embalmed darkness, guess each sweet
Wherewith
the seasonable month endows
The grass, the thicket, and the fruit-tree
wild;
White hawthorn, and the pastoral eglantine; ……
Fast fading violets cover'd up in leaves;
And
mid-May's eldest child,
The
coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine,
The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves.
Here is the highest kind of poetry. Leaves and flowers and the ‘dewy
wine’ are all there, too With all the glory of imagery and musical lyricism.
And yet poetry is not an escape from the sorrow or the grey realities of life,
though Keats talks of them, too in this immortal Ode. Poetry relieves inner turbulence by soothing
it - with music and craft. It is a balm,
a kind of solace to a sad heart. And always, it elevates the soul - to higher levels of being.
So now, let’s celebrate the poet and his poems on this wonderful
evening dedicated entirely - to poetry and only poetry.
Text & Photos (C) Dr BSM Murty
About Me
I taught as Professor of English & American Literature & Linguistics in Universities (Bhagalpur:1959-88), Magadh:1988-'99) & ( As Visiting Professor at Taiz U. Rep. of Yemen:1998-2002), and after retirement living at Lucknow, writing books and journalism. I write two other blogs for my creative writing and translations - vibhutimurty.blogspot.com & vagishwari.blogspot.com.
Contact : +91-7985017549 / 7752922938 (WhatsApp) / 9026267042 / 9451890020
Email: bsmmurty@gmail.com
Please also visit my two other blogs - (1) vibhutimurty.blogspot.com
for my Hindi articles and matter on Shivapoojan Sahay & others &
(2) vagishwari.blogspot.com
for more Hindi articles related to Shivapoojan Sahay & others
& my translations of Bhagawad Geeta & retellings of Ramcharit Manas & Durga Saptshati (by clicking on 2017 & Older posts)
Congrats dear poet
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