Transformation, Like Salt: The Artistry of Mahesh Verma
Mahesh Verma __________________ A consummate artist is a rare creature. And if such a sense of art is able to amalgamate fever and vehemence with restraint and formal experimentation, then one must take notice. Here are some art-works and poetry of Mahesh Verma. Translating these powerful poems has been a challenge and it will be impossible to do complete justice to the nuances of articulation and tone in such a transformed form. So, the original Hindi versions have been reproduced for those readers who can appreciate the tongue. Mahesh Verma writes from Ambikapur, Chhattisgarh. Contentment Contentment, after dried tear-drops And infinite sorrows, arrived Knocked about woman, abasement she’s suffered If that petty job was not forthcoming Suicide was the only option for the co-star In Part II the star shall narrate his tale First came suspicion Then sorrow, then inmost grief Till then, holding breath In the brambles Was hiding contentment Blessed it is with the last bullet, Coincidence and God’s sanctions So, finally in this manner did arrive contentment As if lying low for felicity: an infiltrator From the Rear End To enter words from the rear end Through the back-door From astern The murderer has been nabbed The suicide, over The marriage mantras the priest has begun chanting Moments before couples disjoin from each other for the last time A car, blazing, plummets down the gorge Conspiracy and tear-laden whispers: on pages within The young man has left his home, fugitive The reason for the ringing bullets in the last instance Shall be this table-cloth The maid hides her love-letter, the old man his sins His doping-habits the young man hides The rich hides his sobs The parched platform, the garden-gate The telephone kiosk or any other place Concurrence shall bark him back and in Time’s gossamer a subtle knot tie From here, time’s lurkings plentiful Bright morning, bleary dusk, all other time Words must have spawned there. Desire-Deceit You sport with despondency And I, turn dim Within countless supernova You play with sound And wrenching, the sky flings me away The way you sport with directions With dimensions One evening you murmured in voice-triplet Harmonize I could not with that strain Rolled into the restlessness of the santoor-player My voice told me: adieu With three strains of stammer I have made alliances Until one night, when you kept lobbing kisses over my door of quiet And to my cell-phone, you said: “Desire-deceit.” Transformation Salt, in your body and Grittiness, rubbing my face I was downing fire Slow and even, to transform And turn into a new thing I have seen from close quarters The turning into each other Of a domestic animal An enemy And a galled hand-saw When the fire had guzzled me down And the blazes, once again turning as is At peace and in moderate amber In the sedate sea, salt gets transformed Body’s sweat has made a gentle lover enraptured Within its dank, acidic odour Granular spaces did not become soil Nor did shrubs turn into walls Bundling up liquid and humming Desires within, for a long time They remained as they were Orifice Through this orifice does time enter into my room At night through this walkway descends darkness If ever the moon craves to see its own visage On the floor, on her own In the spherical mirror can she witness it Once, lying down, sliding slow I’d taken her straight into my heart Now I don’t recall clearly Was it moonshine, sunbeam, what was it? Believe you me sir I had altered the meaning of things The Messenger That time when message unfabricated You would deliver verbatim Now, all ten of the messengers As merchants of untruth disclosed Such myriad webs These bastards have weaved between us That only a real sword can now cleave them How gripping it would be to mark his face When, by revealing the sword that had taken The lives of nine messengers The tenth will be asked to acquiesce One more time shall he cook an untruth And for a few more moments Shall salvage his life. God of the Trees Roused by your enormous wings Wander in the empyrean heart At dusk, come back To wail, standing in the dark To noise/be impassive/tarry Water In the chilliest of kisses Water you have petrified! On the sprouting thorns Within your larynx Play that jal-tarang Even if spring Sing the badal raag *** सुखान्त सुखान्त सूखे हुए आंसुओं और अनगिन दुःख के बाद आया ठोकरें खाती रही स्त्री, उसने अपमान सहे यह छोटी नौकरी न लग जाती तो आत्महत्या करने ही वाला था सहनायक नायक भाग दो में अपनी कथा कहेगा. पहले संदेह आया फिर दुःख फिर गहरा शोक आया तब तक दम साधे झाड़ियों में छुपा रहा सुखान्त उसे अंतिम गोली, संयोग और ईश्वर की मदद हासिल है तो अंत में ऐसे आया सुखान्त आने की ताक में था जैसे : घुसपैठिया अंत की ओर से कथा में पीछे से प्रवेश करना. पिछले दरवाजे से. अंत की ओर से. हत्यारा पकड़ा जा चुका. हो चुकी आत्महत्या. पुरोहित शुरू कर चुके विवाह के मन्त्र. प्रेमीगण के अंतिम रूप से बिछुड़ने से ठीक पहले एक कार जलती गिर रही है खाई में षड्यंत्रों और आंसुओं में भीगी फुसफुसाहटें : भीतर के पृष्ठों पर. घर छोड़कर निकल गया है नौजवान, अंत में चलने वाली गोली का कारण यही मेजपोश बनेगा नौकरानी अपना प्रेमपत्र छुपाती है, बूढ़ा अपने पाप. नौजवान नशे की आदतें छुपाते हैं धनी आदमी अपने आँसू छुपाता है. नीरस प्लेटफॉर्म, बगीचे के द्वार, टेलीफोन की दूकान या कहीं भी संयोग उन्हें हांककर लायेगा और समय के धागे पर एक गाँठ लगा देगा. यहाँ से ढेर सारी समय संभावनाएं दिखाई देती हैं उजली सुबह,