When I woke up this morning I remembered that it was hundred
fiftieth birthday of kavi guru Ravindra Nath Thakur. The opening lines of one
of his poems flashed in my inward mind –
“ aaji hote
shotoborsho pore
ke
tumi poricho boshi amar kobita khani
koutuhol
bhore
aaji
hote shoto borsho pore!”
I translate – hundred years after from today/ who are you
reading my poem/ with curiosity/ hundred years after from today! I took out
Tagore’s “sanchayita (collection of poems) and saw that the title of the poem
is 1400 saal (bangle calendar year) and that the poem was written in falgun
1302 (bangle year). Present English 2012 is 14019 in bangle calendar. I read
the entire poem once again, 117 years after its composition and interestingly,
even though I had read the poem dozen of time earlier, recited it on several
occasions I was enchanted to recite it again and had felt the same intense
feeling which was there when it was first recited by me. That speaks of the
quality of writing of the vishw kavi.
Undoubtedly,
Tagore will stay for centuries reasons being – his understanding of human
values man’s realization of inner self, man’s close affinity with Nature, and
man’s connection with the Almighty God. What made my life changed is “GITANJALI”.
Ravindra Sangeet shakes the singer as well as listener. Themes of songs as
contained in Gitanjali and elsewhere have been brought out from an unassailable
height, unveiling the mysteries of birth and death and man’s eternal quest for
Truth. Likes of Valmiki Ved Vyas, Kalidas, Shakespeare and Tagore are born once
in hundreds of years and make people tremble to think if they were human
beings or God incarnate. Bemused with the versatile works of Shakespeare,
people started researching weather Shakespeare was one single person or name of
a group comprising many. The same question may be raised for Tagore centuries
later.
Its a mystery and i'm sure it will remain as one that how someone can describe every possible emotions of a human being in words.I know very very little of Kavi Guru's works but I strongly believe he is probably the legend of all legends. A lifetime is not enough . It would have been absolutely alright if he had written ' Aji hote sohosro borsho pore' instead of 'soto'.. I'm sure the ' koutuhol' will only increase among us. So proud that I can read him in his own language. Pranam Vishwa Kavi.
ReplyDeleteTo The Unknown person -- I endorse your valuable comment. I have been reading Tagore whole of my life but I can't say I have understood him or that I know about him. Thanks.
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