NOVELTY AND POETRY

D. BALAGANGADHARA TILAK

(1919-1966)

Poetry shines only if

it has novelty, chum,

for poetry implies novelty as well;

But, just to be modern

and say something

Why bother yourself and me

With meaningless imagery

and patchwork descriptions

With imitations beyond Dylan Thomas

And crazy syntax sans rhyme or reason

for experience so vague and confused!

“I swallowed two swords

In the late hours of the night

And poured sulphuric acid

On my heart and my head

Scissored my lips and

Stuck them to your back

This very minute my eyes be

gold fishes in poison dipped”

It is indeed novel and brave

To Write thus

But it’s nonsense

It is immaturity

Plus Insainty

Into decadence

This bitter drug

Will cause allergy

This cultivation

Will go crazy.

Obscurity in poetry

There could, at times, be, of course

But the image of Your experience

Must reach

And strike the reader

It must be a darkness transparent

And speak to You

Poetry most unlock

The light-ful chest

Of New Experience,

Move it must;

Every word has its

Power and its edge

Every description has a meaning

and an aptness,

Don’t you rattle a tin-drum

of gravel-stones

and bluff your way

By calling it fine music

Don’t you sulk and curse me,

Brother, I am not angry with you.

All men are not Gandhi-ites

Who don homespun

Everything need not command respect

Merely because it is new

Change of apparel doesn’t make a king

Of a common man,

Nor does end-rhyme in itself

make poetry of a prosaic thought,

for poetry is an alchemy

Whose secret only a poet knows,

Like Kalidasa and Peddana

Krishna Sastri and Sri Sri;

Do live in the present

and mirror the world around,

Open all the windows

Welcome all the winds,

Whatever you say must be yours

Breaking forth from within

Poetry is no word play

Nor magic or jugglery

No need today to revive

the verbal acrobatics

of metre and rhyme

Don’t leave the steeds of feelings

With no let or hindrance;

Brother, poetry must uncover

the worlds of light within

The frontiers of consciousness

Must extend

Whether it scatters fire

Or sprinkles nectar

Its end and aim

is Beauty and Bliss.

(Rendered from the Telugu by D. ANJANEYULU)

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