A POEM OF ASHOK VAJPAYEE I SHALL GO, WHEREVER YOU DESIRE.

                                               

    ASHOK VAJPAYEE  IAS ( born 1941)

  Ashok Vajpayee  is a well known  Hindi poet , critic, art  administrator and a civil servant. He   served as Chairman ,  Lalit Kala Akademi .He also established the Bharat Bhavan in Bhopal.He is the recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award (1994) for his book Kahin Nahin Vahin.

About poetry , he writes this :-

 “Today, the basic struggle of poetry is to protect the personal, which the public world is all too eager to devour . . . Poetry is a civilizational critique of the public from the standpoint of the personal and the individual . . . It is not a celebration of the personal but its exploration, which renders our relation with the public simultaneously creative and critical. It is an unending satyagraha (non-violent resistance) against impersonality, totalization and simplification . . .”

  His  poems   bear stark  influence of Polish poetry ; simple, straight and heartfelt. I have translated some poems of Ashok Vajpayee. Here is a sample..

तुम जहाँ कहो

वहाँ चले जायेंगे

दूसरे मकान में

अँधेरे भविष्य में

न कहीं पहुँचने वाली ट्रेन में

अपना बसता-बोरिया उठाकर

रद्दी के बोझ सा

जीवन को पीठ पर लादकर

जहाँ कहो वहाँ चले जायेंगे

वापस इस शहर

इस चौगान, इस आँगन में नहीं आयेंगे

वहीं पक्षी बनेंगे, वृक्ष बनेंगे

फूल या शब्द बन जायेंगे

जहाँ तुम कभी खुद नहीं आना चाहोगे

वहाँ तुम कहो तो

चले जायेंगे

( Tum Jahaan Kaho )

Tum Jahaan kaho

Vahaan chale jaayeingay,

Doosre Makaan mein,

Andhere Bhavishya mein ,

Na kahin Pahunchaane vaali Train mein …

Apnaa  Bastaa  Boriyaa  Uthaakar ,

Radhi  ke  bojh saa

Jeevan ko peeth par laadh-kar 

Jahaan kaho Vaheen chale Jaayeingay ,

Vaapas iss shahar ,

Iss chogaan , Iss Aangan mein nahin Aayeingay..

Vaheen Pakshi Baneingay 

Vriksh Baneingay ,

Phool  ya  shadbh ban jaayeingay ,

Jahaan tum khud nahin aanaa chaahogay 

Vahaan tum kaho to chale Jaayeingay..

( Ashok Vajpayee)

(Wherever you tell me , 

I shall move to that place, 

 another house ,

towards a dark future ,

or board a train that goes nowhere .

Carrying my bag and baggage,

like a pack of waste material ,

carrying this life too on my back,

 wherever you desire ,

I shall move to that place ,

 and never shall I return 

to this city ,

to this Meeting point ,

and to this courtyard .

There , at that place ,

I shall become a bird,

 or a tree ,

or a flower 

or a Word .

A place , 

where you yourself

   won’t like to come  ,

If you  desire ,

I shall move to that place .)

Ashok has also been decorated by the President of the Republic of Poland with the outstanding national award 'The Officer's Cross of Merit of the Republic of Poland' (2004), and by the French government with the award of 'Officier De L'Ordre Des Arts Et Des Lettres' (2005).

( Avtar Mota )

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