Dinkar and His Poetry

One of the most important modern Hindi poets in India, Ramdhari Singh ‘Dinkar’ was born this day on September 23, in 1908, in a poor family in Simariya village in Bihar’s Begusarai district.

A poet of great gutso, Dinkar was in fact a poet of rebellion and revolution, and was extremely popular during his life time with his nationalist poetry of Veer Rasa (heroic sentiment) inspiring patriots and freedom fighters in the pre-independence period.

Dinkar’s poetry was greatly influenced by Rabindranath Tagore, while his political thoughts were greatly shaped by both Mahatma Gandhi and Karl Marx. He is as popular and connected to poetry lovers for Hindi speakers as Alexander Pushkin is for Russians.

He has been hailed as the Rashtrakavi (National Poet) on account of his inspiring patriotic compositions. He was nominated to the Rajya Sabha (Parliament) thrice.

His famous works include Rashmirathi, Kurukshetra,  Parashuram ki Prateeksha, Hunkar, Sanskriti ke Char Adhyay, Renuka, Rasvanti and Urvashi.

Here is an excerpt from his evergreen epic, “Kurukshetra”, a narrative poem based on the ‘Santi Parva’ of ‘Mahabharata’ and written at a time when the memories of the World War II were fresh-

सहन करने का कुफल यही होता है
पौरुष का आतंक मनुज कोमल होकर खोता है

क्षमा शोभती उस भुजंग को जिसके पास गरल है
उसका क्या जो दंतहीन विषरहित विनीत सरल है

सच पूछो तो शर में ही बसती है दीप्ति विनय की
संधिवचन सम्पूज्य उसीका जिसमे शक्ति विजय की

सहनशीलता, क्षमा, दया को तभी पूजता जग है
बल का दर्प चमकता उसके पीछे जब जगमग है

(The consequence of tolerating
atrocities is
that the awe of machismo is lost
when one is gentle and kind…

Forgiveness is becoming of
the serpent that’s got venom,
none cares for the toothless, poisonless, and courteous ones…

The truth is that the gleam
of modesty lies in the quiver,
only his peace-talk is reputable
who is capable of victory…

Tolerance, forgiveness and clemeny
are respected by the world,
only when the glow of strength
is unfurled from behind them…)

Here are two more examples from Dinkar’s treasure trove:

1. On life’s objective:

उद्देश्य जन्म का नहीं कीर्ति या धन है
सुख नहीं धर्म भी नहीं, न तो दर्शन है
विज्ञान ज्ञान बल नहीं, न तो चिंतन है
जीवन का अंतिम ध्येय स्वयं जीवन है…

(The objective of life
is neither fame nor money,
neither happiness nor religion
and not even philosophy,
neither science, knowledge,
power nor meditation,
the final objective of life
is life itself…)

2. On human dilemma:

रात यों कहने लगा मुझसे गगन का चाँद,
आदमी भी क्या अनोखा जीव होता है,
उलझने अपनी बना कर आप ही फँसता,
और फिर बेचैन हो जगता न सोता है…

(Last night the moon
of the sky was telling me,
human is
a very strange animal,
he himself creates problems
and gets stuck in them,
and then he become restless
and neither awakes nor sleeps…)

–Kaushal Kishore