Haldhar Nag holds poetry lovers spellbound

BY A STAFF REPORTER,Kathmandu, June 26: Haldhar Nag, a famous poet from India, recited his poems in Sambalpuri language amid Nepali authors and poetry lovers and playwrights. Professor Keshar Ranjan interpreted the theme of his poetry. 

Nag first recited his poem 'Nectar' and then ‘Letter’, ‘Kamadhenu’ and ‘The Great Sati Urmila’. 

Nag is known for his prolific memory as well as his simple lifestyle. It is said that the bare-footed poet can recall all the poems he had written till his last poetry. At the programme organised by Nepal Film Campus and Studio Theatre in the capital, his appearance was no different in Kathmandu. 

“Unheralded unsung she is,

In all seven books of Ramayana

For the poet in me, Sati she is,

Even greater than Sita in purity.”

Nag narrated the Ramayana from Urmila's perspective in his poem Great Sati Urmila. Urmila is the wife of Laxman, king Dasharath's third son and lesser acknowledged character in the Ramayana. Nag highlighted her qualities in the poem. 

Born in Bargarh, Odisha, India, on March 31, 1950, Nag is popularly known as "Lok Kavi Ratna" in India. It is said that many of his poems are in the curriculum of a number of universities in India. He was awarded the Padma Shree, the fourth highest civilian award of India, by the Government of India in 2016. It is informed that he hailed from a poor family of Ghens and is best known for his work Kavyanjali, an anthology of English translations of his selected poetry which was launched in October 2016. Although he quit his formal study as a 3-grader, he was conferred on the Doctorate Degree by Sambalpur University in 2019.

Professor Ranjan commented that most of the poets would be confined to a hotel auditorium or a stage but Nag would go to mass of people to present his poems. 'Poet Nag has brought poems from a narrow hall to a mass of thousands of peasants,' he said.

Prior to Nag's presentation,  an anthology of world poetry 'Madness' was released. Professor Sanjiv Upreti, Keshab Sigdel, poet Nag and Professor Ranjan made the anthology public. The book consists of 297 poems on madness by the same number of poets from 102 countries.

Upreti commented that the madness presented in the poems is not aloof from human nature. 'The struggle of social justice itself is a sort of madness,' he said ironically.

Published by RedPanda, the book features 27 Nepali poets including Dinesh Adhikary, Shrawan Mukarung, Biplov Prateek, Tirtha Shrestha, Avaya Shrestha, Momila Joshi, Biplav Dhakal, Bhisma Upreti, Bhupeen, RM Dangol, Mani Lohani, Krishna Prasai, Rajani Dhakal, Jyoti Jungle among others.The anthology was edited by poet Keshab Sigdel.