MASTER’S LAST TWO DECADES
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And I have nothing more
to write about than gratitude...
– Derek Walcott, "The Prodigal"
My lips move
To say thank you
But words don’t come out
They just tremble and stay
– Kunwar Narain, "Inner Sight"
"Witnesses of Remembrance" is the second collection of Kunwar Narain’s poetry in English translation, following "No Other World", published by Rupa & Co in India in 2008, and in an abridged edition by Arc in the UK two years later. While the latter drew mostly from Narain’s earlier works and aesthetics, this new collection, comprises mostly pieces from Narain’s last couple of decades preceding his demise in 2017. Just as in "No Other World", the translations have been made by the poet’s son Apurva Narain, thus produced in unique intimacy with the original work.
Despite his status as one of the most eminent Hindi poets of the last half a century, Narain has largely shared the fate of his fellow Indian writers who refused to relinquish their native tongue in favour of more universal English. That this is just the second of Narain’s collections to come out in English language bears witness to that fact, i.e. attests to his undeserved obscurity in the Western world. But his lifelong decision to publish in Hindi could hardly have followed a pragmatic mind; rather, it was a statement of his commitments, as well as an act of gratitude towards the language that had nurtured him. Not intimidated by its overwhelming past and literary canon – a reasoning common enough amongst the younger authors of India in their preference for English – Narain showed the way to incorporate the past, both historical and linguistic, into an idiom that was modern, personal and in touch with values of his immediate time and environment.
Those familiar with Narain’s earlier work will recognize the same underlying qualities in this new collection: his insistence of treating history as general as well personal, his skill to view the most particular as the most universal, as well as his questions of human fallacy and responsibility are all here. (I am thinking of poems like "The Last Days of Chandragupta Maurya", "Here, Wind" or "I Am Answerable", for instance.) Yet something in his poetic idiom has changed, has turned more condensed and 'bare', so that the heart and bones of a text are a notch more immediate and accessible. Which is why I would even recommend this book over "No Other World" for those new to Narain’s oeuvre, as textures can at times be more intricate in the earlier collection and provide more insight and information into the poems’ cultural or historical setting.
Consisting of more than a hundred poems, this is a book to sink into rather than pass through, even where a poem may at first seem simple and brief. Indeed, the seeming simplicity has often been a remarkable feature of Narain’s poetics, for his ongoing quest was to steer past the apparent complexities, only to find the simpler form to contain more, rather than less, than any superficially contrived intricacies. This, I believe, is evident in different shapes in poems like "Guernica", on Picasso’s aesthetics, or "Ramgarh Triptych", where a description of a mountain village turns into a contemplation on an entire mode of life, or even "Words that Disappear", carefully viewing the weight of the words, or the loss of them by their abuse. For Narain, the simplest conclusion might well be the profoundest one – a leaf falling, a quiet breeze upon a mountain slope, a dark well offering a universal welcome drink. The language of love, which he seeks and addresses, is not too complex to follow, but too simple to hold on to. (In fact, Narain sees our capability to love to be as frail as anything in us, and yet it is the most enduring thing that we will ever have.) All these poems, even the apparently simpler ones, need time to settle, time to stop at them and not rush past them – as much as the poet was unappreciative of rushing in his own life – only to find all "greater" meaning elude us on the horizon.
Narain’s poetry has sometimes been called humanistic, perhaps in some opposition to its more religious or romantic precursors. And no doubt, human kindness and attention stands at the forefront of his poetic ideals. Yet the dichotomy between 'here' and 'there', or 'this' and 'that', 'ordinary' and 'transcendental', is not at all absolute or certain in his oeuvre. There was something very suggestive in the title of "No Other World", counterpart to the Hindi "Koi dusra nahin", literally "No Other One (Is There)", by which the poet appears to attest to a singular world, without explicit boundaries. Our world, to which there is 'no other' alternative, may as well be 'the other world' – or to be still more true, a clear distinction between "this" and "that" might not even exist, and differentiating between them is senseless. "Witnesses of Remembrance" returns, in a way, to the same conundrum – no less in its segment "As if the World Was Real" – by placing human life a witness to itself, bereft of judgments and dogma.
In the realm of Narain’s poetics, the world we are born into is equally a world that we create – we are its makers just as much as its witnesses; the poet works to just be conscious of that fact. His final piece, "Inner Sight", produced at his death-bed, is remarkable in its attesting to life’s mystery, rather than any clear-cut conclusion:
Unknown signals motivate
My steps toward a known fate
It is in that unanswerable awe where perhaps any so-called conclusion could ever be found, the poem suggests. However, preceded by the poem "I Am Answerable", the poet makes it clear that such an awe does not relieve anyone of responsibility. Our choices may be right or wrong, but they are human and thus it is only in them that we can look for our completion.
My aesthetics is not about
well-chiselled stones that shape
square courtyards, steadfast ramparts and sky-kissing spires,
it is that arcane jungle of my impulses
in which there are breathtaking interludes
of gods failing here and there
Compared to "No Other World", it feels there is less of what is said and more of what is beheld in this collection. Introspection comes to merge with retrospection, and vice versa, so that all that lies ahead emerges in the paths once covered. In the diminishing light of time, each word obtains a greater weight, and yet strives to become ever lighter. They feel worked towards the greatest possible lightness before they’re given up, which is a theme referred to in the poem "Words Too Are Left Behind".
I am talking of then
when you will slow down for a bit
You are in a great hurry right now
to go somewhere else
to get something else
to grow into someone else…
I am speaking of then
when only my words will remain
instead of me
Narain’s wider presence among the poetry readers of the Western world is long overdue. It is my sincere hope that this extensive and beautifully balanced collection will serve to be a crucial step in placing Narain’s poetics right where they truly belong – on par with all the other great names of his generation, right next to Neruda, Tranströmer, Walcott et al. His poetic achievements are just as worthy of being a part of our cultural heritage, regardless of our personal geographies and backgrounds. "Witnesses of Remembrance" is ultimately steered towards the same pinnacle as, for example, Walcott’s late epic "The Prodigal", or, in a different manner, Tranströmer’s "Sad Gondola" – a sense of gratitude, thankfulness as the very summit of our human struggle and fulfilment. And as an expression of that, it is something to be truly thankful for.
to write about than gratitude...
– Derek Walcott, "The Prodigal"
My lips move
To say thank you
But words don’t come out
They just tremble and stay
– Kunwar Narain, "Inner Sight"
"Witnesses of Remembrance" is the second collection of Kunwar Narain’s poetry in English translation, following "No Other World", published by Rupa & Co in India in 2008, and in an abridged edition by Arc in the UK two years later. While the latter drew mostly from Narain’s earlier works and aesthetics, this new collection, comprises mostly pieces from Narain’s last couple of decades preceding his demise in 2017. Just as in "No Other World", the translations have been made by the poet’s son Apurva Narain, thus produced in unique intimacy with the original work.
Despite his status as one of the most eminent Hindi poets of the last half a century, Narain has largely shared the fate of his fellow Indian writers who refused to relinquish their native tongue in favour of more universal English. That this is just the second of Narain’s collections to come out in English language bears witness to that fact, i.e. attests to his undeserved obscurity in the Western world. But his lifelong decision to publish in Hindi could hardly have followed a pragmatic mind; rather, it was a statement of his commitments, as well as an act of gratitude towards the language that had nurtured him. Not intimidated by its overwhelming past and literary canon – a reasoning common enough amongst the younger authors of India in their preference for English – Narain showed the way to incorporate the past, both historical and linguistic, into an idiom that was modern, personal and in touch with values of his immediate time and environment.
Those familiar with Narain’s earlier work will recognize the same underlying qualities in this new collection: his insistence of treating history as general as well personal, his skill to view the most particular as the most universal, as well as his questions of human fallacy and responsibility are all here. (I am thinking of poems like "The Last Days of Chandragupta Maurya", "Here, Wind" or "I Am Answerable", for instance.) Yet something in his poetic idiom has changed, has turned more condensed and 'bare', so that the heart and bones of a text are a notch more immediate and accessible. Which is why I would even recommend this book over "No Other World" for those new to Narain’s oeuvre, as textures can at times be more intricate in the earlier collection and provide more insight and information into the poems’ cultural or historical setting.
Consisting of more than a hundred poems, this is a book to sink into rather than pass through, even where a poem may at first seem simple and brief. Indeed, the seeming simplicity has often been a remarkable feature of Narain’s poetics, for his ongoing quest was to steer past the apparent complexities, only to find the simpler form to contain more, rather than less, than any superficially contrived intricacies. This, I believe, is evident in different shapes in poems like "Guernica", on Picasso’s aesthetics, or "Ramgarh Triptych", where a description of a mountain village turns into a contemplation on an entire mode of life, or even "Words that Disappear", carefully viewing the weight of the words, or the loss of them by their abuse. For Narain, the simplest conclusion might well be the profoundest one – a leaf falling, a quiet breeze upon a mountain slope, a dark well offering a universal welcome drink. The language of love, which he seeks and addresses, is not too complex to follow, but too simple to hold on to. (In fact, Narain sees our capability to love to be as frail as anything in us, and yet it is the most enduring thing that we will ever have.) All these poems, even the apparently simpler ones, need time to settle, time to stop at them and not rush past them – as much as the poet was unappreciative of rushing in his own life – only to find all "greater" meaning elude us on the horizon.
Narain’s poetry has sometimes been called humanistic, perhaps in some opposition to its more religious or romantic precursors. And no doubt, human kindness and attention stands at the forefront of his poetic ideals. Yet the dichotomy between 'here' and 'there', or 'this' and 'that', 'ordinary' and 'transcendental', is not at all absolute or certain in his oeuvre. There was something very suggestive in the title of "No Other World", counterpart to the Hindi "Koi dusra nahin", literally "No Other One (Is There)", by which the poet appears to attest to a singular world, without explicit boundaries. Our world, to which there is 'no other' alternative, may as well be 'the other world' – or to be still more true, a clear distinction between "this" and "that" might not even exist, and differentiating between them is senseless. "Witnesses of Remembrance" returns, in a way, to the same conundrum – no less in its segment "As if the World Was Real" – by placing human life a witness to itself, bereft of judgments and dogma.
In the realm of Narain’s poetics, the world we are born into is equally a world that we create – we are its makers just as much as its witnesses; the poet works to just be conscious of that fact. His final piece, "Inner Sight", produced at his death-bed, is remarkable in its attesting to life’s mystery, rather than any clear-cut conclusion:
Unknown signals motivate
My steps toward a known fate
It is in that unanswerable awe where perhaps any so-called conclusion could ever be found, the poem suggests. However, preceded by the poem "I Am Answerable", the poet makes it clear that such an awe does not relieve anyone of responsibility. Our choices may be right or wrong, but they are human and thus it is only in them that we can look for our completion.
My aesthetics is not about
well-chiselled stones that shape
square courtyards, steadfast ramparts and sky-kissing spires,
it is that arcane jungle of my impulses
in which there are breathtaking interludes
of gods failing here and there
Compared to "No Other World", it feels there is less of what is said and more of what is beheld in this collection. Introspection comes to merge with retrospection, and vice versa, so that all that lies ahead emerges in the paths once covered. In the diminishing light of time, each word obtains a greater weight, and yet strives to become ever lighter. They feel worked towards the greatest possible lightness before they’re given up, which is a theme referred to in the poem "Words Too Are Left Behind".
I am talking of then
when you will slow down for a bit
You are in a great hurry right now
to go somewhere else
to get something else
to grow into someone else…
I am speaking of then
when only my words will remain
instead of me
Narain’s wider presence among the poetry readers of the Western world is long overdue. It is my sincere hope that this extensive and beautifully balanced collection will serve to be a crucial step in placing Narain’s poetics right where they truly belong – on par with all the other great names of his generation, right next to Neruda, Tranströmer, Walcott et al. His poetic achievements are just as worthy of being a part of our cultural heritage, regardless of our personal geographies and backgrounds. "Witnesses of Remembrance" is ultimately steered towards the same pinnacle as, for example, Walcott’s late epic "The Prodigal", or, in a different manner, Tranströmer’s "Sad Gondola" – a sense of gratitude, thankfulness as the very summit of our human struggle and fulfilment. And as an expression of that, it is something to be truly thankful for.
Mathura (Margus Lattik) is an Estonian writer and artist. In 2014, his collection of poems Käe all voogav joon (The Line Flowing Beneath Your Hand) won the Gustav Suits Poetry Prize, 2016 saw the publication of his first prose book Jääminek (As the Ice Lifts) which received the Virumaa Literary Award for the year’s best historical novel. His latest work is a series of haikus on Hong Kong, loosely strung into a narrative. His poetry has been translated into a dozen languages, including Swedish, Chinese and Hebrew.
