Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Poems — In your language :)

This is an excerpt of a lovely poem by Baruk:

in your language, not mine
will i abuse and curse at you
and scream and rail and rant at you
in your language, not mine.


The poem has been recognized by Amnesty International (Aotearoa New Zealand) and was read out on Courage Day.

Also read this post called Grin and the interesting discussions in the comment section.

Initially when I began reading his blog, I thought his posts were too full of anger. Then, I slowly got used to his way of writing and began loving the way he morphs his angst into lovely, strong poems.

Ever so often, I feel sad that poems only pose prodding questions in a wordy way, questions to which we have no answers and so get frustrated. Once out of the system, the best a good poem can do is to act as a catalyst for more thoughts, introspection and sometimes debates. But even within this limited scope, poems can do a mighty lot.

Read about George Orwell's take on poems that I mentioned in this long post. He says that poems can survive even in the face of totalitarianism. Excerpts from Orwell's essay are written towards the end.

Coming back to this poem...

As I read In your language not mine again, I realise how relevant it is in the vicious times we live in. The immediate connect reading it this time was with the episode in which MNS members of legislature allegedly manhandled and even slapped Samajwadi party MLA Abu Azmi when he began taking his oath in Hindi. Some people were actually cheering the vandalism as another act of bravado in defense of Marathi asmita...

My favourite poem from Baruk is Api's thlan

6 comments:

~G said...

you are tagged :)

Arjun said...

hi gauri, i'm trying to start blogging again, so thanks a lot for the link, the few poems i've read till now in 'bottle broke' have been excellent.

I hope you remember me (being probably the only other person except me who read my blog), and read my poem, though it really isn't that good.

by my window said...

poetry is a balm...something aerial.Gauri,i inaugurated my blog some three months back and i have not posted anything other than the first post. your blog is an inspiration and i am going to buck up. you had thanked me for the compliments on your beadwork. i shall blog yet... keep both the poetry blog and bead work going.

Siddharth said...

Hi Gauri... sent you an email request on Anonymous Smiles.. kindly reply...

Thanks....

Gauri Gharpure said...

G-- thanks and promptly done!

Doremi-- keep blogging!!! take up the tag soon, please

By my window-- what encouraging words.. i hope u find time to fill up your space soon

Siddharth-- waiting for the addresses...

feddabonn said...

much thanks for the kind words, g. actually, i *do agree that my work is too angry. i've been trying to cool it off, but...

i personally connect this poem to some of the discussions we have had on joe's blog, and i am glad you have brought up the MNS angle.

jut to add to perspective, the immediate context here in aotearoa NZ is the almost extinction of the maori language. it is only since the 70s-80s that there has been a resurgence in maori pride in their culture and language. it was almost wiped out in favour of english.

it also refers (rather obliquely) to my experience working with children with autism, most of whom have been non-verbal.

thanks again, discussions like this make my *week (if not month)!