বৃষ্টির কবিতা

বর্ষার বৃষ্টিতে — নরেশ গুহ

এক বর্ষার বৃষ্টিতে যদি মুছে যায় নাম
এত পথ হেঁটে এত জল ঘেটে কি তবে পেলাম?
এত যে সয়েছি, এত যে পেয়েছি,
দুঃখ-সুখের ধারায় নেয়েছি,
দুচোখে দেখেছি অপার্থিবের, অফুরন্তের ঝর্ণা
প্রকৃতির রীতি মানুষের ঘর-করনা।

মার কোলো শিশু ঘুমে অচেতন,
চুলে বিলি দেয় হাওয়া —
একটি চুমোয় বিশ্বের সব খ্যাতি গৌরব
বিত্তের স্বাদ পাওয়া।

ধিক্কারে ভরা নোংরা নরকে
একটি কথার গানে
শত বার ফিরে জন্ম নেবার
অভিলাষ আনে প্রাণে।

সব আশা যদি চুরমার হয়
ভাঙে ফুলদানী, ভোরের চায়ের বাটি
যে পথে সে আর ফিরবে না
তবু আর একবার সেই পথ দিয়ে হাঁটি।
তৃষ্ণা মেটে না দেখে।
এখন কি তবে জলে লিখে নাম চলে যেতে হবে?
কী তবে পেলাম, কী তবে হলাম!

চিরজীবীদের জয়টিকা আর অসামান্যের মাল্য
প্রতিজ্ঞা করে কেটেছে একদা দেব-দুর্লভ বাল্য।
ছিল না শঙ্কা, মনের কোনায় সন্দেহ ক্ষীণ
শিশু উল্লাসে হাওয়ায় হাওয়ায় সে আমার দিন

রাঙা বুদবুদ উড়িয়ে দিয়েছি চপল খেলায়
আজ যৌবন খর-জীবনের মধ্য বেলায় –
এখন দেখছি কত যে স্বপ্ন কত যে ইচ্ছে
হল না জীবনে পূরণ — কে তার হিসেব নিচ্ছে!

চলতে চলতে নিজেই ভুলেছি, কত না দুপুর
কালো ভ্রমরের পাখায় এনেছে বহিয়া কী সুর
লঘু প্রহরের সে-সুর ছন্দে গাঁথার সময়
পেল না হৃদয়।

দীর্ঘ গ্রীষ্ম কেটে গেছে, কত গানের চরণ
চোখোর সামনে জারুলের শাখা বেগনি বরণ
পুষ্প-প্রদীপে অপব্যয়ের যে উদাহরণ
স্থাপন করেছে, তা দেখে আমার হৃদয় জানতো
আমারো তা হবে। জারুল শাখায় যে অফুরন্ত
আমারো জীবন জারুলের মতো করবে তুচ্ছ

সকল চিহ্ন অবলেপকারী কালের ইচ্ছা
আমিও পারব এ মরদেহের ধ্বংস ভুলতে
হিমে উলঙ্গ কালের শাখায় পুচ্ছ তুলতে।

আমি তো কখনো করি নাই তাই কারো প্রতীক্ষা
হায় দুরন্ত শ্রাবণ, তুমিই দিয়েছ শিক্ষা
হৃদয় শুধুই দু’হাতে বিলাতে, ঝরাতে শুধুই
তোমার মতোই সঞ্চয় আমি রাখিনি কিছুই।

আজ রাত্রিতে বৃষ্টি নেমেছে
একা বিছানায় ঘুম চোখে নেই –
শুয়ে শুনি হাওয়া ডেকে ডেকে যায়
যেন মনে হয়, আজ রাত্রিতে এখানে আসার
কত কাল থেকে রক্তে আমার কথা ছিল কার!

আমাকে অমর করার মন্ত্র সে বুঝি জানত
সে অপার্থিব, সে অফুরন্ত –
সে যেন আমার লক্ষ্য-বিহীন সকল গানের অকুল মোহনা
সে যেন আমার অধীর প্রাণের চির প্রতীক্ষা
হায়, দুরন্ত উতল শ্রাবণ
তোমার শিক্ষা — এই তো করল!
এখন কি শেষে জলে লিখে নাম চলে যেতে হবে?
কি তবে হলাম!

Quotes/Poems from Emily Dickinson

(Emily Dickinson is one of my favorite poets. Here are few quotes/poems from her in the Words of Wisdom section of my blog. I have followed a kindle version of her collected poems. I will keep updating this page in the future.)

The Bee is not afraid of me.
I know the Butterfly.
The pretty people in the Woods
Receive me cordially—

The Brooks laugh louder when I come—
The Breezes madder play;
Wherefore mine eye thy silver mists,
Wherefore, Oh Summer’s Day?

———-

Pain has an element of blank;
It cannot recollect
When it began, or if there were
A day when it was not.

It has no future but itself,
Its infinite realms contain
Its past, enlightened to perceive
New periods of pain.

———-

Elysium is as far as to
The very nearest Room
If in that Room a Friend await
Felicity or Doom–

What fortitude the Soul contains
That it can so endure
The accent of a coming Foot–
The opening of a Door–

———-

What is Left to Say by Lisel Mueller

Here is a beautiful poem, a reflection on the self, by Lisel Mueller. This poem is found with a commentary on the Poetry Chaikana blog – HERE.

“The self steps out of the circle;
it stops wanting to be
the farmer, the wife, and the child.

It stops trying to please
by learning everyone’s dialect;
it finds it can live, after all,
in a world of strangers.

It sends itself fewer flowers;
it stops preserving its tears in amber.

How splendidly arrogant it was
when it believed the gold-filled tomb
of language awaited its raids!
Now it frequents the junkyards
knowing all words are secondhand.

It has not chosen its poverty,
this new frugality.
It did not want to fall out of love
with itself. Young,
it celebrated itself
and richly sang itself,
seeing only itself
in the mirror of the world.

It cannot return. It assumes
its place in the universe of stars
that do not see it. Even the dead
no longer need it to be at peace.
Its function is to applaud.”

Maya Angelou – Poems, Quotes

Maya Angelou (1928-2014) was a famous and influential American poet who wrote many memorable, profound, and inspiring poems. Here I would like to collect some inspiring quotes from her poems. I will keep updating this.

“I note the obvious differences
Between each sort and type,
But we are more alike, my friends,
Than we are unalike.

We are more alike, my friends,
Than we are unalike.

We are more alike, my friends,
Than we are unalike.” (from Human Family.)

“You declare you see me dimly
through a glass which will not shine,
though I stand before you boldly,
trim in rank and marking time.
You do own to hear me faintly
as a whisper out of range,
while my drums beat out the message
and the rhythms never change.

Equality, and I will be free.
Equality, and I will be free.” (from Equality)

Some inspiring quotes on variety of topics

A japanese zen student said “I understood what my teacher said, after he died!”

“There are a number of ways to say the same thing: the one is the way to the many, the specific is the way to the spacious, the now is the way to the always, the here is the way to the everywhere, the material is the way to the spiritual, the visible is the way to the invisible. When we see contemplatively, we know that we live in a fully sacramental universe, where everything is a pointer and an epiphany.”

(from Richard Rohr, Just This, CAC Publishing, 2017, 9–11. a longer excerpt is available here)

“Loneliness is not in the mountains
It is not in the city when a person is by herself
It is when a person is among many people.”

(-Anonymous)

“Courage is the only thing that works.
It’s the best of all virtues,
A natural fortress against any attack
On the mind or the senses, a boat
To carry you across a sea of sorrows,
Armor against the arrows of harsh words,
A god-given defense on the field of battle,
A charm that paralyzes an enemy’s pride
And dispels an army of cares,
A buried treasure that gives you all yogic powers,
The one true friend when you’re lonely.
That’s what courage is. Can people like you
Live without it?”

(quote from Telegu poet Allasani Peddana, in The Story of Manu, translated by Velcheru Narayana Rao and David Dean Shulman)

“When my death comes,
I wish to die-
like a child falling asleep,
in a mother’s lap,-
With joy, love, and trust”

(a quote from a Tibetan monk named Gen Palden Dakpa)

T.S. Eliot on Poetry, Criticism, Baudelaire

“No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists. You cannot value him alone; you must set him, for contrast and comparison, among the dead. I mean this as a principle of aesthetic, not merely historical, criticism. The necessity that he shall conform, that he shall cohere, is not onesided; what happens when a new work of art is created is something that happens simultaneously to all the works of art which preceded it. The existing monuments form an ideal order among themselves, which is modified by the introduction of the new (the really new) work of art among them. The existing order is complete before the new work arrives; for order to persist after the supervention of novelty, the whole existing order must be, if ever so slightly, altered; and so the relations, proportions, values of each work of art toward the whole are readjusted; and this is conformity between the old and the new. Whoever has approved this idea of order, of the form of European, of English literature will not find it preposterous that the past should be directed by the present as much as the present is directed by the past. And the poet who is aware of this will be aware of great difficulties and responsibilities.” (P.15)

“To proceed to a more intelligible exposition of the relation of the poet to the past: he can neither take the past as a lump, an indiscriminate bolus, nor can he form himself wholly on one or two private admirations, nor can he form himself wholly upon one preferred period. The first course is inadmissible, the second is an Important experience of youth, and the third is a pleasant and highly desirable supplement. The poet must be very conscious of the main current, which does not at all flow invariably through the most distinguished reputations. He must be quite aware of the obvious fact that art never Improves, but that the material of art is never quite the same. He must be aware that the mind of Europe-the mind of his own country (-a mind which he learns in time. to be much more Important than his own private mind-is a mmd which changes, and that this change is a development which abandons nothing en route, which does not superannuate either Shakespeare, or Homer, or the rock drawing of the Magdalenian draughts men. That this development, refinement perhaps, complication certainly, is not, from the point of view of the artist, any improvement. Perhaps not even an improvement from the point of view of the psychologist or not to the extent which we imagine; perhaps only ill the end based upon a complication in economics and machinery. But the difference between the present and the past is that the conscious present is an awareness of the past in a way and to an extent which the past’s awareness of Itself cannot show.” P.16.

“What is to be insisted upon is that the poet must develop or procure the consciousness of the past and that he should continue to develop this consciousness throughout his career. What happens is a continual surrender of himself as he is at the moment to something – which is more valuable. The progress of an artist is a continual self-sacrifice, a continual extinction of personality. There remains to define this process of depersonalization and Its relation to the sense of tradition. It is in this depersonalization that art may be said to approach the condition of science. I therefore invite you to consider, as a suggestive analogy, the action which takes place when a bit of finely affiliated platinum is introduced into a chamber containing oxygen and sulphur dioxide.” (P.17)

“If you compare several representative passages of the greatest poetry you see how great is the variety of types of combination, and also how completely any semi-ethical criterion of ‘sublimity’ misses the mark. For it is not the ‘greatness’, the intensity, of the emotions, the components, but the intensity of the artistic process, the pressure, so to speak, under which the fusion takes place, that counts.” [Selected Essays. London. Faber and Faber Limited. 1932.P.19]

“At one time I was inclined to take the extreme position that the only critics worth reading were the critics who practised, and practised well, the art of which they wrote. But I had to stretch this frame to make some important inclusions; and I have since been in search of a formula which should cover everything I wished to include, even if it included more than I wanted. And the most important qualification which I have been able to form, which accounts for the peculiar importance of the criticism of practitioners, is that a. critic must have a very highly developed sense of fact. This is by no means a trifling or frequent gift. And it is not one which easily wins popular commendations. The sense of fact is something very slow to develop, and its complete development means perhaps the very pinnacle of civilization. For there are so many spheres of fact to be mastered, and our outermost sphere of fact, of knowledge, of control, will be ringed with narcotic fancies in the sphere beyond.” (P.31)

“For the kinds of critical work which we have admitted, there is the possibility of cooperative activity, with the further possibility of arriving at something outside of ourselves, which may provisionally be called truth. But if anyone complains that I have not defined truth, or fact, or reality, I can only say apologetically that It was no part of my purpose to do so, but only to find a scheme into which, whatever they are, they will fit, if they exist.” (P.34)

“Comparison and analysis, I have said before, and Remy de Gourmont has said before me – are the chief tools of the critic. It is obvious indeed that they are tools, to be handled with care, and not employed in an inquiry into the number of times giraffes are mentioned in the English novel.” (P.32-33).

“Baudelaire belongs to a definite place m time. Inevitably the offspring of romanticism, and by his nature the first counter-romantic. In poetry, he could, like anyone else, only work with the materials which were there. It must not be forgotten that a poet in a romantic age cannot be a ‘classical’ poet except in tendency. If he is sincere, he must express with individual differences the general state of mid-not as a duty, but simply because he cannot help participating in it.” (p.386)

রোমান্টিসিজম ও সাহিত্য বিষয়ে বুদ্ধদেব বসুর কিছু উক্তি

রোমান্টিক বলতে আমি যা বুঝি – শুধু একটি ঐতিহাসিক আন্দোলন নয়, মানুষের একটি মৌলিক, স্থায়ী ও অবিচ্ছেদ্য চিত্তবৃত্তি। তারই নাম রোমান্টিকতা, যা ব্যক্তি-মানুষকে মুক্তি দান করে, স্বীকার ক’রে নেয় – শুধু ইস্ত্রি-করা এটিকেট-মানা সামাজিক জীবটিকে নয়, নির্ভয়ে মানুষের অবিকল ও সমগ্র ব্যক্তিত্বকে; তার মধ্যে যা কিছু অযৌক্তিক বা যুক্তির অতীত, অনিশ্চিত, অবৈধ, অন্ধকার ও রহস্যময়, যা কিছু গোপন, পাপোন্মুখ ও অকথ্য, যা-কিছু গোপন, ঐশ্বরিক ও অনির্বচনীয় – সেই বিশাল ও স্বতোবিরোধময় বিস্ময়ের সামনে, সন্দেহ নেই, মুখোমুখি দাঁড়াবার শক্তির নামই রোমান্টিকতা। এই শক্তি, যা কোন যুগেই একেবারে রুদ্ধ হ’য়ে থাকেনি কিন্তু কোনকোন যুগে – যেমন শেক্সপিয়রের ইংলন্ডে – যার বিস্ফোরণ গগনস্পর্শী হয়েছে, তা রুসোর পর থেকে সর্বসাহিত্যের সাধারণ লক্ষণ হ’য়ে উঠলো ।    

[বুদ্ধদেব বসু, প্রবন্ধসঙ্কলন ১ম খণ্ড। দে’জ পাবলিশিং । কলকাতা । পৃ  ২২২-২২৩। ]

কবির বিষয়ে বোদলেয়ার যে-বিশেষনটি বারবার ব্যাবহার করেছেন তা ‘পুণ্যবান’ (pieux); কিন্তু তাঁর পুণ্য তাঁর কর্মে নয়, চৈতন্যে; সেই বিবেকময় চৈতন্যময় পুরুষ তিনি, যিনি, ডস্টয়েভস্কির প্রিন্স মিসকিনের মতো, জাগতিক ব্যাপারে একেবারেই অক্ষম, অব্যাবহিত পারিপার্শ্বিকেও তিলতম পরিবর্তন যিনি ঘটাতে পারেন না, অথচ নিজের মধ্যে নিখিল বেদনাকে ধারণ করেন। তাঁর কাজ জগতকে বদলান নয়, জগতকে অনুভব করা এবং সেই জ্ঞানেরও অনুভূতির শক্তিতেই তাঁর মহিমা । [বুদ্ধদেব বসু, প্রবন্ধসঙ্কলন ১ম খণ্ড। দে’জ পাবলিশিং । কলকাতা । পৃ ২২৮]।

যে-দুর্বোধ্যতা শুধুমাত্র জ্ঞানার্জনের দ্বারা অতিক্রম্য, তাকে, শেষ পর্যন্ত, কবিতার একটি দুর্বলতা বলে আমরা মানতে বাধ্য । [বুদ্ধদেব বসু, প্রবন্ধসঙ্কলন ১ম খণ্ড। দে’জ পাবলিশিং । কলকাতা । পৃ  ২৩২]।

প্রাচীন সাহিত্যে কষ্ট আছে, আর্তি আছে, মনস্তাপ আছে, কিন্তু বিষাদ নেই। ধ’রে নিতে হবে যে বিষাদ ভাবটি মানবচিত্তে আবহমান; কিন্তু সে-বিষয়ে চেতনার উন্মেষ ঘটে রেনেসাঁসের যুগে, আর পূর্ণ বিকাশ রোমান্টিকতায়। লা রশফুক বলেছিলেন যে মানুষ যদি প্রেমের কথা এতো না শুনত তাহ’লে সে প্রেমে পরত না । যা সাহিত্যে নেই তা জীবনেও অনুভূত হয় না রেনেসাঁস-শিল্পে বিষাদের উদ্ভাস দেখে, তবে মানুষ জানতে পারল যে বিষণ্ণ হওয়া তাঁর স্বভাবের একটি লক্ষণ। এবং এই জ্ঞানকে যারা চরমে নিয়ে গেলেন, তার সব সম্ভাবনাকে উদ্ঘাটন ক’রে দেখলেন যারা, তাঁরাই রোমান্টিকতার প্রবর্তক । [বুদ্ধদেব বসু, প্রবন্ধসঙ্কলন ১ম খণ্ড। দে’জ পাবলিশিং । কলকাতা । পৃ পৃ ২৩৫]

“বোদলেয়ারের দুঃখ, সর্বশেষ বিচারে, অমৃতের জন্য বিরহবেদনা ছাড়া আর-কিছু নয় – মানুষের সব দুঃখই মূলত তাই – আর সেইজন্যই, গভীরতম আধ্যাত্মিক অর্থে, তাঁর দুঃখ মূল্যবান; শুধু প্রেম বা সৌন্দর্য ও নয়, তাঁর দ্বারা প্রজ্ঞা লভ্য । ‘হে আমার দুঃখ তুমি প্রাজ্ঞ হও’ – এই পবিত্র দীর্ঘশ্বাস শেলি অথবা বায়রনে আমরা শুনি না, এবং বোদলেয়ারে  শুনি ব’লেই আমরা বুঝতে পারি তাঁর দুঃখসাধনা কত সার্থক। “[বুদ্ধদেব বসু, প্রবন্ধসঙ্কলন ১ম খণ্ড। দে’জ পাবলিশিং । কলকাতা । পৃ ২৪০।]

indomitable bodhicitta

” Therefore if the state of mind of actually wanting to accomplish something good occurs to you, you should be like a blind man who has managed to catch hold of a cow’s tail. You should resolve never to lose it, but to develop it more and more. Don’t ask your father. Don’t discuss it with your mother. Don’t let others decide for you. Just make up your own mind and be independent. Do not give yourself over to others, but be like a yak with its nose rope tied around its own head. Leave your enemies to their own devices; let your fields dry up. Practice earnestly, instead, the ten innermost riches of the Kadampa masters of old 55 and the famous three fierce mantras of the Dharma lord Tsangpa Gyare. Tell yourself: “I will truly practice the sacred Dharma:’ And once the pledge is taken, it must be fulfilled! The ten innermost riches are the three actions [of leaving, seeking, and obtaining], the four objectives, and the three vajras. The three actions are to leave the fellowship of humans, to seek the fellowship of dogs, and to obtain the fellowship of the enlightened. The four objectives are to turn your mind to the Dharma, to turn your Dharma to the condition of a beggar, to orient your beggarly condition toward your death, and to aim to die in a lonely cave. Regarding the three vajras, you start with the vajra of no procrastination, you conclude with the vajra of no need to be ashamed, and you take as your companion the vajra of primordial wisdom. The three fierce mantras are “Whatever has to happen, let it happen!’: “Whatever the situation is, it’s fine!”, and “I really don’t need anything!”

 

( p. 46. The NECTAR of MANJUSHRI’S SPEECH A Detailed Commentary on Shantideva’s Way of the Bodhisattva byKunzang Pelden. Translated by the Padmakara Translation Group. SHAMBHALA · Boston & London · 2010 )

The power of our refuges

When I was in my most intense pain, meditation became a refuge for my mind. Mettā meditation was so effective at focusing my mind that, somehow, my intense pains would vanish for a time. I found myself taking refuge in my breath during my bone marrow biopsy and MRI scans, allowing my mind to dwell in a comfortable space during some rather uncomfortable procedures.

In the hospital, I found my speech and actions could become refuges for my family and caregivers — providing them with a space where they could feel calm, positive and helpful. I try to be honest and let people help me when they can. I try to use the spirit of irony to take the edge off my complaints. Simple courtesies of thanks and asking nurses and aides how their days are going have gone a long way to making sure my care team knows that they can breathe easy around me.

(The above quote is from Aaron Lee’s reflections on his experience of dealing with cancer. The full reflection is available here. Aaron Lee passed away on the 21st of October, 2017. Aaron had a blog named ‘Angry Asian Buddhist‘ where he wrote about the experience of Asian immigrant Buddhists in the USA. Here is an article on Aaron that was published in the popular Buddhist magazine Lion’s Roar. Although I did not meet Aaron personally, what I heard and read about him touched me very deeply. )

Do external things distract you?

“Do external things distract you? Then make time for yourself to learn something worthwhile; stop letting yourself be pulled in all directions. But make sure you guard against other kind of confusion. People who labor all their lives but have no purpose to direct every thought and impulse toward are wasting their time – even when hard at work.”

(Marcus Aurelius. Meditations – A New Translation, with an Introduction, by Gregory Hays, New York: Modern Library. p.18)