Kunwar Narain Biography
Born in 1927, Kunwar Narain has been a stalwart presence in the field of Hindi poetry for five decades. Since his first book, Chakravyooh, in 1956, this Delhi-based poet has published five books of poetry, one collection of short fiction, a long narrative poem, three works of literary criticism and several translations of the poetry of writers such as Cavafy, Borges, Mallarme, Walcott, among others.
Associated with the ‘Nayi Kavita’ (New Poetry) in Hindi, Narain was one of the poets featured in Teesra Saptak (1959), one of the four influential anthologies of seven contemporary poets, edited by the eminent poet, Agyeya. He has been variously described as “one of the most well-read poets in Hindi”, a predominantly ‘meditative’ poet, “dwelling on the present through the prism of myth and history” and as a writer whose work reveals ‘a twentieth century sensibility in its anguish as well as its resourcefulness’. His many accolades include the Hindustani Akademi and Sahitya Akademi awards.
He sells peace in the neighbourhood.
His shop
of loudspeakers
is right next to my house.
...
Pull him out first. Uproot his house
from its foundations
and make it stand on its side like a cot;
...
I wandered all day
and nothing happened
I met people all day
and no one humiliated me
I spoke the truth all day
and no one felt hurt
I believed everyone all day
and no one deceived me.
The miracle is
that when I returned home
it wasn't someone else
but I
myself
who returned home
totally intact.
...
As usual
this time also
the police reached the place
much after the incident
so that they could record what
the eye-witnesses said. But
except for a heap of ashes
and charred bodies
there were no witnesses
the old and the young
who had built the pyre
with such frenzy
and had lit the fire -
the killers who had fed the flames
with helpless victims and danced . . .
Where did it happen? . . . In this country.
Why does it happen in any country?
In Belsen - Biafra - Belchi - Vietnam -
Bangladesh -
...
Wheat-coloured, a peasant's ways,
scarred brow,
height not under five feet,
talks like he's never known grief.
Stammering,
if you ask his age, he'll tell you -
several thousand years, give or take a few . . .
Seems crazy, but isn't.
Has fallen off high places more than once,
and got all broken up, so
looks glued together,
like the map of India.
...
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