Musings are surely amusing as they
spontaneously spurt from the fountain of a poet's mind like the waves in a
purling lake. When they rise, they find their expression in a form of language
to let them be known to the reader in the poetic process. The process begins
when prompted by an impulse to preserve them in the art of poetry. The poet
portrays the musings in poetry by virtue of artistic excellence and technical
brilliance. The caterpillar-like musings turn into butterfly-like poems to
shine in the reader's eyes in the reign of the poetic art. In the literary
firmament, there dawns a poet with distinctive poetic perspectives to achieve a
special place. He is none other than Bhirbhadra Karkidholi, a poet and short
story writer of Indian Nepali language. He has received several acclaims and
accolades, awards and rewards to his credit at the national and international
levels for his works in original and in translation.
As a poet, Birbhadra Karkidholi has
the observant eye and inquisitive zeal for the snapshot details of his
observations, feelings, experiences, impressions, thoughts, responses and the
like for himself and the reader like Philip Larkin who rightly puts the
objective of a poet in a nutshell,
I write poems to preserve things I
have seen/thought/felt (if I indicate a composite
and complex experience) for himself and others, though I feel that my prime responsibility in the experience itself,
which I am trying to keep from oblivion
for its own sake. Why I should do this I have no idea, but I think the impulse to preserve lies at the bottom of all
art. (Poets of the 1950 s 77)
In the genre of poetry, Birbhadra
gives a concrete shape to his musings arisen from his lovely observations to
the lively impressions of flora and fauna, mounts and hills, highlands and
valleys, dawn and dusk, the sky and the stars, night and day, the sun and the
moon, clouds, and waves, and so on around him. A few lines, quoted below, are
enough to talk about his positive responses to his sensitive observations,
From time immemorial
The snow has been
melting down,
Never has the Himalaya lost its height
Never is the Himalaya
Ever terrified of the
warmth of the sun. 'THE HIMALAYA', 27
The special quality of Birbhadra is
that he fondly looks at the Himalayas that
respond to him in an amazing, enlightening way,
Never has the Himalaya told
'I am so tall'
'THE HIMALAYA' 27
The poet feels that man should
learn lessons from the Himalayas. He indirectly
exhorts man to be human, humanistic, and humanitarian to mark a clear-cut
difference from the nonhumans like the Himalayas. When the high Himalayas never feel pride and conceit for their highs
and riches, man should never feel so for his riches and highs,
Let's not sale our dreams, DREAMS
Let's also melt
down!
Let's not lose our
heights; 'THE
HAMALAYA' 27-28
A
poet of human consciousness and social awareness is bound to respond to express
human values and social virtues. I quote my (Dr. Rajamouly Katta's) definition
of poetry from my article on Susheel Kumar Sharma featured in Language,
Literature and Culture,
"Every poet lets us listen to
his heart-throbs for our heart-responses. It is his primary goal and bounden responsibility to describe events,
incidents, experiences, dilemmas,
problems, etc that he glimpses and witnesses in life. Poetry is his medium and spectrum he expresses through, and
weapon and organ he fights with
for the aimed reforms and desired solutions. It rises from the reality and the actuality of life in the way the plant
rises from the ground of truths to bloom
the flowers of facts."
The poet feels that the man today
forgets the principle of humanity. He offers man his wishes to be in the right
path to be human in values and virtues and rise to the level of the divine,
Being human even we
ourselves don't
Follow the
principle of humanity
'BEING HUMAN', 31
May you live like
the sky
Where may divine
constellations shine
And become the rays
of inspiration
... ... ... ...
... may your beauty
Become the beauty
of this vey earth
May you live a
worthy life here 'BEST WISHES', 30
Birbhadara, as a man and poet,
wishes to enjoy the beauties of highlands and valleys by transporting him to
them,
Highlands
or valleys--wherever you say
I am ready to go
there too.
Promise-vows--whatever you say
I am ready to take
that too.
... ... ... ...
Precipice or
cliff--whatever you ask me
I am ready to walk
even there
'I AM READY', 54
As a poet and man, Birbhadra is a
Romantic in nature like the Romantics. His poetry presents the snapshot details
of his life, emotions, observations, and all gushing from his pen,
This pen contains
Her own tears, drop by
drop 'I'VE GOT: AFISTFUL OF POEM'. 70
The poet finds his life futile,
full of anguish and grief. He wishes to have relief and solace from life in
futility,
If life is but a guard hanging
between
cliffs
To call life a life
seems futile
'LIFE IS FUTILE' 50
Here, when life
Has become a gourd
Hanging between such
precipice,
Life: calling it
life seems
O! so worthless! 'LIFE IS BUT
WORTHLESS', 33
Life is nothing
Seems, I should lose
it
... ... ...
Life is insipid just
like this
Seems it is
meaningless
'LIKE WISE LIFE IS', 32
Ah! I am too tired
Nay, where shall I
take this life
In order to throw it
away
'I AM LOOKING FOR THAT PLACE', 59
To
forget the futility of life, he flies on the wings of imagination to realms of
choice where he seeks relief from the sea of grief and solace from the menace
of anguish,
As the anguish of
separation stirs all over the mind,
Sometimes I feel
like crying in solitude
I feel like
relieving somewhere for a moment
The intolerable
pain and anguish of my mind 'LIFE
IS FUTILE', 50
The poet wishes to have peace by
means of his being in silence as it presents him relief and solace,
May I live more silently
utter
silently
This is my prayer as
long as I live 'REVERENT
SILENCE', 61
In such ways, Birbhadra presents a
graphic and realistic portrayal of life in the way he feels it. For him life is
'futile', 'meaningless', 'worthless' and so on. For remedy, he prefers to have
all: his 'happiness', his hand, his way, 'his company for himself,
My memories! My
each moment!
Now I need just
for my self. 'MY MAME/MY
COUNTRY', 62
Birbhara is unique in responding to
his emotions resulted in his observations. He places himself before him, his
own life in his poetry. He wants to read his emotions all alone,
Sometimes, placing
myself
Before me,
I read, keep on
reading myself
Alone,
In the quiet room of
the heart
Short stories of
My own life 'IN THE QUIET ROOM OF THE
HEART', 80
A poet is one who has an observant
eye and so he renders his inklings photographic by means of his poetic craft.
In the anthology of poems, entitled Pristine Stroke he
deals with kaleidoscopic themes underlying life: life, nature, the past time's
reign, memory, dreams, reality, love, nationality and so on.
Bhirbhadra as man and poet feels
that 'life is not like routine/ For that matter, life/Can't be like life also'.
He wishes that it should not be routine. It should be fresh to look anew like
the tree that lives in the cyclic pattern,
After bearing the
fruits
Whatever be its
weight
That tree must be
able to bear it.
Seeing the scars
caused by stones hurled at it
No tree from the
season next
Has stopped bearing
fruits
'A ROUTINE MR. BHIRKA LIFE
IS NOT LIKE', 72
Nature and the changes in it are
cyclic. To be in the cyclic pattern, the flora in nature reigns in the annual
trick of looking new every year.
That very flower!
Will it bloom next
year
On the same branch?
Will the same branch
b there next year
On that stem?
The poet loves nature for its
annual scheme of blooming, spring-fall and so on. None can break or destroy the
cyclic pattern of trees in flowering. Spring falls every year to present gaiety
in plenty to the onlookers by its beauty in variety. He enjoys the plucking of
flowers with his feeling that it is not the sin of murder,
What's wrong even if
I pluck the flower
Who can annihilate
the spring?
While plucking that
flower
I won't be a murderer
Even the others who
pluck the flowers,
Are not murderers, I
am sure.
... ...
... ...
That flower, I did
pluck
Anything wrong if it
is on my own palm,
Chest and lips? 'THAT
FLOWER AND I', 34-35
Birbhadra hears rumors all in a
sudden about the sun that the imperishable sun has died. He loves to see it
once for its warmth,
I wished to see the
sun, once.
The sun burn, the
dropping sweat'
The warmth, the heat
and the luminance of the sun-
I recollected 'SUN
AND YOU', 40
The poet is very much worried
about 'the streams and rivers dried up' for the 'absence of specified
certainty', causing
The threat was more
for
The larger fishes
than the smaller ones.
THE TALK ABOUT WATER AND FISH',41
The poet enjoys sweet memories he
has got in the gazing beautiful sights of landscapes, birds in 'twilight in the
river ways' and so on. His memories are
indelible,
Indelible memory
Every twilight/clean
dawn
I see/look even
during dusk THE HIMALAYA',68
His sweet memories, that are
indelible and imperishable lifelong, appear to present him smiles.
Your memory
Is seen gently
smiling
On the hill beyond
the horizon
... ... ...
Your intense memory
Seems flowing like a
fag-end
Dropped from my
hand MEMORY,
67
As man and poet, Birbhadra, like the
Romantics, has attachment with the past, 'that time' that clings to the present
in memory. He tries to experience it by watching it once again in the present.
It is 'oblivion today'. It is time that plays an important role in turning the
past into the present. He does not want to forget the past. He has 'a desire to
meet that time' It is very important for him in the present,
It is very important to meet
that
time once,
Which I met for the
first time in life
Why is the same time in
oblivion today!
Why is it traceless?
For me/for her. 'WHY IS THAT TIME OBLIVIOUS TODAY?', 51
For the poet, everything is finished
but life 'will not finish'. He strikes an optimistic on this aspect,
One should be able
survive along with
the survivors
One should not finish
off this life along
the dead.
Even if everything is finished'
Life will not finish in
life
I will continue enjoying
whatever comes in life
After all what is
destined, seldom perishes away. 'JUST THOUGHTS', 53
Birbhadra portrays love that is
flawless for him. It is free from pretence, false appearance. It is far beyond
all hypocrisies as per the poet. He expresses his deep love for his ladylove,
The kind of reverence that
I have for you!
... ... ...
My soul has only one
picture
That is yours.
... ...
...
I sing your hymns
And perform rituals for
yours
Just to pretend as priest
Bit you know all this--
In the sacred hymns that
go continuously
inside me, quietly
I am dedicated and
devoted. IN YOUR GODLY WORLD', 77
For the poet, the lover should be
free to love his beloved. If that freedom to love is curbed or curtailed, he
cannot bear it in separation as the punishment of a prisoner. Lover is not a
criminal to undergo punishment in the prison bars,
As I am a
prisoner
In your prison
But I cannot bow
to your feet
Aye! I
can't ' IN YOUR GODLY WORLD', 77
If it is the case with a
sincere lover, the ladylove finds herself lost. She is deprived of his love in
devotion and adoration,
That you yourself
lost
Love Respect,
Devotion, Dedication
From my heart,
forever. 'IN YOUR GODLY WORLD',
78
The lover makes an appeal to his beloved not to imprison him in her
prison to face the pangs of morbid love and bear the stabbing of' 'poisonous
spears'. He as a sincere lover wants her to love him for his healthy life,
Let me start a new
life here
From your prison
OR Let me live an
ungodly
Life once more
In your godly
world 'IN YOUR GODLY
WORLD', 79
Birbhadra's love for his nation, as a citizen
of the world and a member of the world human family, is not in confines and
narrow walls. It, at the same time, rises to the universal level in loving
other nations as his nation while safeguarding his patriotic feelings and
respectful impressions for his nation,
Your country! My
country!
Both of our
countries like the country
And let the country
Like country within
a country
Becoming a country.
... ... ...
Let my country
remember my salute once!
Let it
remember!! 'ABOUT MY COUNTRY', 39
As poet, Bhirbhadra turns deep emotions into
an exquisite array of poems in the anthology entitled Pristine Stroke,
Srijana Subba's English rendering of his select poems in Indian Nepali
language. He identifies with the reader to share his emotions, observations,
thoughts, and so on as a poet with his concern to the reader. He has risen to the levels of poets par
excellence in the galaxy of contemporary poets by virtue of his thematic
variety in his poetry. He expresses the themes in the language understandable
even to a common person with a little knowledge of the language. It presents pleasant
reading to the readers all over the world.
Birbhadra Karkidholi, as a poet
of rich contributions to bestow on him several awards for his literary
contributions, occupies a significant place in the poetic panorama by virtue of
his merits in the art in the contemporary era from Sikkim.
…RUMINATIONS, A Peer-Reviewed Bi-Annual International
Journal for Analysis and Research in Humanities and Social Sciences,
Supplementary Edition (December 2018) Abstracted &Indexed at - Ulrich, USA,
Approved by: UGC, New Delhi, Sr. No. 2108, Jr. No.49164
…
TRIVENI, Vol 91 No.1 Jan-March 2022
Works cited:
Birbhadra,
Karkidholi, Pristine Stroke, Satish Sharma Pokharel, Darjeeling, 2015
Larkin, Philip.
Poets of the 1950s. Tokyo,
Kenkyusha, 1955
Rajamouly, Dr.
Katta. 'Poetry for Reform: Susheel Kumar Sharma's The Door Is Half Open',
Yking Concise Encyclopaedia of Language, Literature and Culture,
Yking Books, Jaipur, 2014
