[Abhay K. is the author of nine poetry collections, most recently of The Alphabets of Latin America(Bloomsbury), and the editor of The Bloomsbury Book of Great Indian Love Poems, CAPITALS, The Bloomsbury Anthology of Great Indian Poems and New Brazilian Poems. His poems have been published in several literary journals including Poetry Salzburg Review and Asian Literary Review. His ‘Earth Anthem’ has been translated into over 50 languages. He has received SAARC Literary Award 2013 and was invited to record his poems at the Library of Congress, Washington DC in 2018. His translation of Kalidasa’sMeghaduta and Ritusamhara from Sanskrit has received critical acclaims. His forthcoming poetry collection is titled The Magic of Madagascar. Presented herewith is the edited excerpt of an interview Uday Adhikari of The Gorkha Times had with Mr. Abhay.]
Being selected by Gulzar is itself an honor and you have got this honor for A Poem A Day, a bulky collection of 939 pages that contains 366 poems by 279 contemporary Indian poets. Now you are quite well known. How did you come into poetry writing? You said in one interview that you started writing poetry when you were posted in Russia. I think it was just a physical date. A poet in you must have been knocking the door for long before the releasing date. Was there any inspiration or just it happened?
Certainly, I’m honored with my poem ‘Shanti Path’ included in the anthology A Poem A Day selected, translated and edited by Gulzar. I started writing poems after arriving in Moscow in 2005 but the seeds were sown much earlier when I had read Rashmirathiby Ramdhari Singh Dinkar while studying in class four. I still remember the words from the TritiyaSarga (third canto) of Rashmirati and the sound and energy of these words fill me with joyevery time I recite them. Later I read dohas of Kabir and Rahim, Hanuman Chalisa and Ramcharitmanas of Tulasidasa, and poems of Suradasa and poets like Gopal Singh Nepali, Harivansh Rai Bachchhan, William Shakespeare, Kalidasa, Walt Whitman, Tagore among others which created immense love for poetry within me.
I think it was the beauty of Moscow’s landscape, people, metro and city life that inspired me to start writing poems.
You were born in Bihar where many languages other than English are spoken as mother tongues. Maybe at your home as well, three or four languages were spoken. It is interesting to know how a boy from such an environment mastered English and became a famous poet in a language that neither his father nor his mother spoke. Would you like to share your struggle through the foreign language?
My mother spoke to me in Magahi and my father in Hindi. I learnt some English in the Middle and High School but did not speak it until I came to study at the Kirorimal College in Delhi University. I remember buying 21st Century Chamber’s Dictionary after arriving in Delhi from a bookshop in Kamala Nagar and reading English newspapers with the help of it. I slowly started speaking in English with my classmates in the college who had studied throughout in English medium schools. Then, within a year of practicing to speak English, I got the opportunity to represent my college at the World Universities Debating Championship in Manila, Philippines. That was miraculous. I don’t know how it all happened.
Sometime back, I saw you inaugurating a street library in Antananarivo, Madagascar. You are from the region, which has a long history of reading culture. Your region was forced to witness the burning down of one of the greatest library in Nalanda. How was your childhood? Were there libraries around? How have you been associated with libraries? While thinking about this The Indian Library in Kathmandu where you started Poemandu, Conversations and Cinemandu comes to my mind.
That’s right. The street library has really become a hit in Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar with over a 100 books borrowed within a month. The burning of the great library at Nalanda was a tragic event for the whole world. I have written a poem about it.
Nalanda
Bakhtiyar and his men
play buzkashi in my alleys today
monks are being burnt alive; and
those who try to escape are beheaded.
Dharmagunj — the nine storied library
has burst into flames
smoke and ash from burning books
have turned the day into night.
The sun has disappeared from the sky today
and even my bricks bleed
sacred chants that once purified Magadha
have turned into shrieks of a falling humanity.
The light of the world is fading today
to face ravages of time alone
abandoned, scorned, forgotten
or perhaps to be reborn into many Nalandas.
My father was a teacher and at home we had lots of books. There were no libraries though in my village or the nearby town of Rajgir. I would like to start a mobile library which can go from place to place in the villages and make books available to the children and adults there. I am working on it.
Nepal-Bharat Library is a great place for finding many interesting and new books in Kathmandu and it was a great joy for me to start Poemandu, Conversations and Cinemandu there. I think every village, every town, every city should have a library where people can meet each other and exchange creative ideas.
When you were in Nepal, your Earth Anthem was put to music and immediately it became very popular. You have just released Cosmic Anthems. What inspired you to compose these anthems?
I wrote Earth Anthem in 2008 in St. Petersburg. Its music was composed in Nepal in 2013 by Sapan Ghimire and was sung by Shreya Sotang. After writing Earth Anthem, I wanted to write anthems on other planets in our solar system, present them to the world in a new light. For example, seeing Sun as the home star, moon as celestial diamond, Mars as Earth’s twin, Venus as a rebel princess, Jupiter as a cosmic break dancer, Saturn as a whirling dervish, Uranus as a cosmic magician and Neptune as a celestial bouncer in slow motion.
Your poetry collection The Eight- Eyed Lord of Kathmandu reveals your deep attachment with Nepal. I heard you talking about poetry at the Nepal Literature Festival in Kathmandu. When you were here, you were very active in cultural field. Would you like to share your experience about this country that inspired you creatively?
That’s right! I love Nepal, its mountains, its valleys, its food, its people, its culture. I learnt Nepali during my three and a half years’ stay in Kathmandu and speak it fluently. I connected well with the poets, writers, musicians, actors, singers and the creative community as a whole when I was in Nepal and still keep in touch with them. Nepal’s beauty is unparalleled, its heritage rich, its customs unique and its people warm and friendly. These are a source of inspiration for me.
In spite of dozens of translations of Kalidasas’ Meghaduta available in English, you chose to translate it. Was there any particular reason to give it a try? Did you find anything lacking in previous versions?
I read a number of translations of Meghaduta and I was not fully satisfied with any of them. They have been translated by scholars and academicians but not poets. I thought of giving it a try myself. I had studied Sanskrit in my high school for two years and it came handy to me while translating Meghaduta into English from Sanskrit.
You mentioned in your latest interview with Jenny Bhatt that you have already finished the first draft of Ritusamhara or A gathering of Seasons. Another Kalidasas’ work is in offing. I wonder why only Kalidasa, how does he inspire you?
That’s right. I have completed translating Kalidasa’s Ritusamhara and sent it to the publisher. It will be published in October 2021. Kalidasa is a genius in bringing together two timeless themes of nature and sensuality. I think this is what sets him apart from other poets and that’s why he continues to be appealing even today.
Sanskrit is supposed to be a great historical language that is rarely used in daily uses. You have been exploring it seriously for some time now. I have seen you doing yoga routinely, reciting couplets faithfully and now another incarnation of a Sanskrit scholar. I am curious to know how you learnt this rich language.
Sanskrit is used every day even today while saying prayers or chanting mantras during performance of rituals, and for encryption. There is even a newspaper published in Sanskrit and there are a number of universities across the world where Sanskrit is taught. I learnt it during my high school days and still remember a number of shlokas by heart. Initially I thought that Sanskrit is mainly a language for spiritual matters but reading Kalidasa, Bhratrihari and a number of other Sanskrit poets I found that it is also a language that contains the best love poetry.
‘A man can be destroyed but not defeated’. This is a very famous line from your one of the favorite book The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway. Would you like to mention some of the books and writers that have inspired you creatively throughout your life?
Rashmirathi by Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, My Experiments with Truth by Mahatma Gandhi, Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore, Glimpses of World History by Jawaharlal Nehru, A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking, Ignited Minds by Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas by Machado de Assis, Collected Poems by T.S. Eliot, Meghaduta and Ritusamhara by Kalidasa The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran among others.
You have published many anthologies of poetry. What is the process of your poetry writing? How do you feel the germination of a poem in you? Do you need certain environment? it seems your busy schedule doesn’t affect your meditative mood for poetry. What does help you to concentrate upon poetry?
I write poems when I can’t do without writing them. It begins with an image, then a line, and a stanza and then a whole poem comes up. I don’t need any specific place or environment to write poems. I can write poems at any place, at any time. I think a new place, a new culture, a new person helps me to write new poems. I read a lot of poetry and share a lot of poetry, these help me keep focused on poetry.
Very inspiring interview. Congrats