(387) My quoted Quotes in my Posts (10)

(148) “A man, not interested in Literature, Music (Classical – as it is the ancient verse) or any Art, is just like an animal without a tail and horns.” (A Sanskrit Verse)

(149) “Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled (lame), thought and speculation at a standstill.” (Barbara W. Tuchman) 

# Life and Literature

(150) “Error is committed unknowingly and innocently, but blunder is backed by strong intension and sometimes hasty thoughtlessness for doing so.”  (Valibhai Musa)

(151) “Shared joy is a double joy; shared sorrow is half sorrow.” (A Swedish proverb)

(152) “A balanced life is the only key to preserve the prosperity for a long time.” (An unknown source) 

(153) “You will never have any more time than you have today.” (William George Plunkett) 

(154) “One should also recognize the opportunities as they, sometimes, come open-faced and, sometimes, disguised.” (Valibhai Musa)

(155) “Our temptations and efforts to gather the whole world within our arms or under our feet are futile just as a hen tries to gather her chicks, wandering here and there, under her wings.” (Valibhai Musa)

#  Lose and long on life long

(156) “To be human means to feel inferior. (Alfred Adler)

(157) “Nature is the best physician and that it should be allowed to function without the intrusion of meddlesome interference.” (Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine and a Greek Physician) 

(158) “The beloved of the Almighty are: the rich who have the humility of the poor, and the poor who have the magnanimity of the rich.” (Sheikh Saadi, a Persian man of literature)

# Lady with the lantern !

(159) “I would suggest that when a person has a thought of doing anything serious against the law, it should go to a quiet place and think about it seriously before it does.” (William George Bonin, a murderer, who was executed about a decade ago in America had uttered his last words)

(160) “If you hear that someone is speaking ill of you, instead of trying to defend yourself, you should say, ‘He obviously does not know me very well, since there are so many other faults he could have mentioned.’” (Epictetus, a Greek Philosopher)

(161) “Behave with others as you would expect others to behave with you.” (A Slogan)

# Hear-says or rumors

(162) “Silence of good people encourages evil indirectly.” (Valibhai Musa)

# Paying Respect to the Late Mr. ‘Sufi’

(163) “Just to prevent the wars, walls should be built in the minds of the people.” (An unknown source) 

(164) “We see that this song of hate has not benefited humanity.” (Mahatma Gandhi)

#  Life on earth, possible but not safe !

(165) ’‘To do  and not to do is a question.” (Shakespeare)

# No scarcity of Jacks of All !

(166) “A little learning may be perfect if style of presentation goes with it”. (A Saying)

# Art of Balanced Exaggeration in Conversation – 1

(167) “Poetry is an art of soul.” (An unknown source)

(168) “Exaggeration is to paint a snake and add legs.” (A Proverb) 

(169) “Some so speak in exaggerations and superlatives that we need to make a large discount from their statements before we can come at their real meaning.” (Tryon Edwards) 

# Art of Balanced Exaggeration in Conversation – 2

(170) “Opening of a mall in a city puts an end to the business of thousands of hawkers and traders. This mall culture will plunge the middle class into a greater financial crisis and turn hawkers into beggars.” (Medha Patkar, an Activist)  

# Rivalry of two retail trade sectors in India

(171) “Over diversification is only good for those who don’t know what they are doing, If you are sure that you know five good stocks then have faith in yourself and distribute your money among them instead of buying thirty random companies that you know nothing about. Diversification can scientifically reduce your returns especially when you believe that few stocks will go up in price by a good percentage.” (Warren Buffet, the richest man in the world)

# Strategies in Bearish Stock Market

(172) “One of my colleagues asked if I was lying in the emergency room critically ill, would I prefer a doctor with technical excellence, or one who was compassionate and caring? I replied neither. Why should a patient need to choose? A competent Physician must be both.” (Dr. Gabriel Smilkstein)

#  Dr. P. J. Shah, a tender-hearted Physician will be missed

(173) “One should save money against hard times, save wife at the sacrifice of own riches, but invariably one should save own soul even at the sacrifice of wife and riches.” (Chanakya)

(174) “If a country is to be corruption free and become a nation of beautiful minds, I strongly feel there are three key societal members who can make a difference. They are the father, the mother and the teacher.” (Kelly Preston)

#  Rising above Corruption – A General Review

(175) “The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four persons is suffering from mental illness. Think of your three best friends and if they are okay, then the fourth that remains is you.” (Rita Mae Brown) 

#  Who is really insane? – ‘Seldom’ such Posts (3)

-Valibhai Musa 

 

(373) Best of 5 years ago this month May – 2008 (13)

Click on …

Lady with the lantern !

Lose and long on life long

Life and Literature

1st Anniversary of “William’s Tales”

– Valibhai Musa

 

(249) Expositions of Chosen Poems – 3 (The Flute Vendor-A Gujarati Poem)

Click here to read in Gujarati

My friend Mr. Sharad Shah of Ahmedabad had commented my earlier post of this kind. It was an English poem of William Wordsworth titled as “We are Seven”. In his opinion, Indian poetry like written in Gujarati, Hindi and any other Regional languages compared to English ones have much more taste and beauty. In reply to his comment, I had only written that we cannot make any generalization that particular language has very good literature and others don’t have. It is true that the literature of Indian Regional languages could not spread worldwide in spite of being it superior. It is but natural that any literature written or translated in any International language has much more scope to spread.

Today, I am determined to give my exposition of a Gujarati poem titled in English as “The Flute Vendor” written by the Late Umashankar Joshi {1911-1988), a renowned Man of Letters of his times and will be remembered for the years to come as and when Gujarati language and its literature is going to be discussed. Mr. Joshi had received many literary awards.

By the way, I am tempted to say that during the course of my Post Graduation, I was awarded the Certificate of Extempore Speech Competition with second rank by Umashankar Joshi, the Chief Guest of the Function of College Annual Day then. I picked up a cover of the unknown subject on the stage and just like the improvisator, I had delivered my speech on the subject “If Mahatma Gandhi were alive!”.

Before to proceed on my exposition of the poem, my Readers will have to be familiar with the poem in discusstion. I am going to give you the poem in Gujarati first and then its translation in English in its poetry form.

વાંસળી વેચનારો

’ચચ્ચાર આને !
હેલી અમીની વરસાવો કાને !
ચચ્ચાર આને !
હૈયાં રૂંધાયાં વહવો ન શાને !’

મીઠી જબાને લલચાવી હૈયાં,
રસે પૂરા કિંતુ ખીસે અધૂરા,
શ્રમીણકોને અમથું રિબાવતો,
બરાડતો જોરથી બંસીવાળો.

ઘરાક સાચા સુણવા ના પામે
વેગે જતી ગાડી મહીં લપાઈ જે
બંસી સુણંતા પ્રણયોર્મિગોષ્ઠિની.

‘ચચ્ચાર આને !’
ના કોઈ માને
અને ખભે વાંસળી-જૂથ એનું
થયું ન સ્હેજે હળવું, ભમ્યો છતાં !

‘ચચ્ચાર આને!’
લો, ને રમો રાતદી સ્વર્ગ તાને !
‘ચચ્ચાર આને?’

‘દે એક આને !’
‘ના, ભાઈ, ના, ગામ જઈશ મારે,
છો ના ખપી ! ઈંધણથી જશે નહીં.
ચચ્ચાર આને ! બસ ચાર આને !!

પાછા વળંતાં, પછી જૂથમાંથી
ખેંચી મજાની બસ એક બંસી,
અષાઢની સાંજની ઝરમરોમાં
સૂરો તણાં રંગધનુ ઉડાવતી,
એણેય છેડી ઉરમાંથી ઝરમરો !.

જીવંત આવી સુણી જાહિરાત, કો
બાર મહીંથી જરી બ્હાર ઝૂકતી
બોલાવતી તાલી સ્વરેથી બાલા.

હવે પરંતુ લયલીન કાન,
ઘરાકનું લેશ રહ્યું ન ભાન !

– ઉમાશંકર જોશી

A Flute Vendor

“Four annas1 a piece!
Have a shower of nectar
deluge your ears!
Four annas a piece!
Why not let
your suffocated hearts gush?”

Cried loudly the flute vendor
enticing with a sweet tongue
the bosoms
of those relishing melody
but with empty pockets,
unfairly tormenting the toilers!

The genuine customers
were bereft of music.
Cozily listening to the flute
of amorous words
were those
speeding in cars.

“Four annas a piece!”
And despite wandering
no one bought
and the burden of the bunch
on his shoulders
diminished not.

“Four annas only!
Buy and revel
day and night
in heavenly melody!”
“Four annas each?”
“Sell for an anna.”
“No sir, no.
Will return to my village
though they remain unsold.
This is no firewood stock.
Four annas each.
Only at four annas a piece.”

Turning back, he picked
a nice one from the bunch of flutes.
In the drizzle of Ashadh2
he too began to spray from his heart
a fount of rainbow notes!

Hearing this live display
a maid from a window peeped
beckoned him with a clap.

Ears immersed in lilt the vendor
remained oblivious of the customer.

– Umashankar Joshi

1. An anna was one-sixteenth of a rupee. Now, 4 annas = INR 0.25
2. The first month of monsoon

This is a Free verse poem i.e. without any metre/s written in free style rhyme and also just like telling a story on a particular episode. The hero of the poem is both a workman and also an artist. In the beginning of the poem, his role seems to be of a hawker or a vendor of flutes. By carrying the bunch of flutes on his shoulder, he verbally advertises for his product in his different slogans spoken in flowers of speech. All his efforts prove to be in vain. The certain class of the people have no any value of flutes in their minds. The flute is just like a commodity for them made of a narrow hollow bamboo with very simple workmanship of some holes to be opened and closed with the finger-tips while blowing the air from mouth from one end of the flute played vertically or horizontally. Some labor-like common people cannot afford four annas of the flute and hence they bargain and demand the flute at one anna a piece.

In my view the original Gujarati text of the translated line as “This is no firewood stock” indicates that he would rather use the unsold flutes as fire-wood but won’t sell the flute for one anna. He wandered and wandered through streets but the burden of the flutes did not decrease from his shoulder. He was not disappointed with the flop day of his business. He drew a flute from the bunch and began to play. This was his live advertisement and as a result a girl gets attracted. She leaned from the window and by clapping tried to call him for the purchase of a flute. But now, the flute vendor was engrossed in playing the flute and therefore he could not pay attention towards this prospective customer. His ears were engaged with hearing the tune of his flute. This time he was neither a workman nor a salesman of the flutes, but he was an Artist, a true Artist.

Thus the poem ends in such style of a Shakespearian Sonnet as “Ears immersed in lilt the vendor, remained oblivious of the customer.”

– Valibhai Musa

 

(218) તમાકુત્યાગના પ્રયોગો અથવા મારી શરમકથા – ૨ (ક્રમશ:)

કસ્તુરીમૃગને ખબર નથી હોતી કે તેની પોતાની નાભિમાંથી જ કસ્તુરીની સુગંધ આવે છે અને એ બિચારું કસ્તુરીની તલાશમા પર્વત પર્વત, જંગલ જંગલ ભટક્યે જ જતું હોય છે. ગુમશુદા બાળકની શોધમાં બહાવરી બનીને દરબદર ભટકતી કોઈ ધુની માતાને એમ કહેવામાં આવતું હોય છે કે તેની કમરે તેડાએલું બાળક અન્ય કોઈનું નહિ, પણ તેનું પોતાનું જ છે! બસ, આવું જ થતું હોય છે મારા તમારા જેવા અનેકોના જીવનમાં કે તેમની સમસ્યાઓના ઉકેલ તેમની પાસે જ હોવા છતાં તેઓ અત્ર, તત્ર, સર્વત્ર તેની તલાશ અર્થે પરિભ્રમણ કર્યે જતા હોય છે. મારા આ કથન સંદર્ભે પ્રાચીન કવિ ધીરા ભગતની કૃતિ “તરણા ઓથે ડુંગર”ને ટાંકીશ જેનાથી મારા સુજ્ઞ વાંચકો સુવિદિત થશે કે ઘણીવાર માનવજીવનની કોઈ ડુંગરસમાન સિદ્ધિઓ કે વૈજ્ઞાનિક શોધસંશોધનો આડે એક ક્ષુદ્ર તણખલું માત્ર જ હોય છે અને તે સહજ રીતે જ દૂર થઈ જતાં પેલું મહત્વનું લક્ષ્ય જે અદૃશ્ય હોય છે તે દૃશ્યમાન થઈ જતું હોય છે.

તમાકુના વ્યસનમાંથી મુક્ત થવાના મારા અસફળ પ્રયત્નો મારા વ્યસનની અર્ધી સદી ઉપરાંતની અવધિ દરમિયાન અવિરત ચાલુ જ રહ્યા. મારા ભાગ્યની વક્રતા ગણો કે જે ગણો તે, પણ હું તમાકુના વ્યસન આગળની મારી લાચારીના એક માત્ર અપવાદ સિવાય (આત્મશ્લાઘા જેવું લાગે તો માફી ચાહું છું!) મારા સમગ્ર જીવનકાળમાં દૃઢ નિશ્ચયબળે કોણ જાણે કેટકેટલાય સંઘર્ષોમાંથી ઈશ્વરકૃપાએ હું પાર ઊતર્યો છું. માનવીમાત્રમાં એકાદ એવી કમજોરી હોય જ છે અને મારા દુર્ભાગ્યે મને મારી આ કમજોરી સાથે પનારો પડ્યો.

 

(188) Expositions of Chosen Poems – 2 (We Are Seven)

Click here to read in Gujarati

One more Exposition of William Wordsworth’s poem “We Are Seven” is here. I have numbered such Expositions in order to show my preparedness to give in succession many more such Posts in future. My Readers, if interested in original text of the Poem, may click here.

In the beginning, I would like to give you the summary of the poem on topic and thereafter the exposition or criticism will follow.

The poet meets a simple cottage girl in the Churchyard who is only eight years old. She is so delicate that at her childhood age, she is not aware of what death is. The poet asks her, ‘How many brothers and sisters may you be?’ Gazing towards the poet in surprise, the girl replies, ‘How many? Seven in all!’