Poet Gurung comes up with Palestinian poems

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, Aug. 13:  Poet Chandra Gurung has come up as a translator with a collection of Palestinian poems in Nepali titled 'Jaha Amaharu Kahilyai Nidaudainan'.

The book has been published in Nepal and India simultaneously. According to Gurung, it is published by Indigo Ink, Kathmandu, and Laliguras Publication, Darjiling, India.

The anthology consists of 80 famous poems by 39 Palestinian poets. The book includes poems by world-famous poets such as Mahamud Darwis, Taha Muhamad Ali, Ghasan Kanafani, Muin Basiso, Fauji Al Asmar, Samih Al-Kasim, Taufique Jayad, Gasan Jaktan, Najwan Darwis and others. 

These poems are based mainly on Palestinian fights for the rights of their native land. Though they express agony, anger, poverty, suppression, hunger, nostalgia and struggle, they do not lose their hope.

In a poem titled Gajama Aama Nidaudinan (Mothers Do Not Sleep In Gaza) by Nima Hasan, the poet says that the mothers of Gaza are different from others who serve their children for the motherland.

In another poem titled Hami Kahile Bhetne Chhau (When Will We See) by Mahamud Darwis, a girl asks her boyfriend the date for their meeting. The boyfriend answers her that they will meet after the war ends. He adds that the war will end only then when they meet. The poet signals that love can be saved only when people are united for the salvation of the motherland.

“I love the poems by Palestinian poets very much, I salute their fight for the right rather,” said Gurung.

He added that the poems by them are very powerful as well as heartbreaking. “That's why I got them translated in Nepali,” he professed.

'Jaha Amaharu Kahilyai Nidaudainan' is the first translated book by Gurung. The Dharan-based poet has many books of poetry to his credit, including Usko Mutubhitra Deshko Naksa Nai Thiena (There Was No Country Map in His Heart), My Father's Face, Jaba Euta Manchhe Harauchha (When A Man Gets Lost). The latest is popular among Nepali poetry lovers and received 'Bimal Gurung Literature Award-2079'.  Moreover, a collection of poetry by him translated in Hindi titled Budhe Majhi Ka Desh (The Country Of Old Fisherman) is also published in India recently. He has translated many Nepali poems in English and Hindi and English and Hindi poems in Nepali.