poetry
This poem titled ‘Ganga’ is a poet’s tribute to the Ganges, the civilizational font of India with divine […]
Noted bilingual fiction writer and translator Rajat Chaudhuri translates three poems of Gouranga Mondal, young and upcoming poet
Priyanka Tripathi, in conversation with author and academician Brinda Bose where she takes us through her writing journey, what writing means to her and shares her inspiration behind it all.
“Ek hi dharti hum sab ka ghar jitna tera utna mera” is a poem written by legendary Urdu poet Nida Fazli. The poem was recited by Nidhi Chopra Khan for Kitaab’s Quarantine Poetry Series.
two countries of same colors
split
and over years
the burden of sketched borders
fenced wires
torn jannat
An introduction to the poem by the poet
The poem presents a situation where all around the world people are doing one form or another of counting. Numbers have come into the foreground in our pandemic days. As I was becoming more and more aware of how random numbers began to affect our lives in unexpected ways, I decided to write a poem that would reflect both the despairing and hopeful feelings oscillating within us with regards to these numbers.
While writing this poem I became very conscious of Tennyson’s melancholy and how his poems often moved from despair to that of faith and hope. I decided I would intersperse the stanzas in my poem with lines from various Tennyson poems to heighten the effect on the numbers and their connotations. I believe the intertextuality in the poems takes the poem to a new dimension.
Published by Kitaab, Quarantined Sonnets: Sex, money and Shakespeare by Tabish Khair is considered to be one of the finest works of literature to come out of the Covid 19 pandemic. This anthology of sonnets written by the noted poet, novelist and critic, contains powerfully original rewritings which combine humor and satire with acute social and political commentary.
