JOIN US'Feel aspects around you and a poem will emerge'
A writer is as much a professional like anybody else. He, as a professional can not demand for an extra timeframe to complete the work, rather should gradually learn to meet the specified deadlines.
The writers should not consider themselves as different from other professionals, because they are as much the strugglers as others in the society, opined renowned poet and lyricist Gulzar.
Delivering ‘James and Shobha Mendonca Endowment Lecture on Poetry-2012’ organised by Kavita Trust at SDM College of Business Management on Sunday, Gulzar came up with several suggestions on poetry writing and also shared about his life and experiences as a poet. Terming “preserving ones self” as the most important factor for a poet, he said the poet should feel the elements by keeping himself open to the world.
“A small thing like the flame which takes its shape so artistically can be used as a subject of poem if the poet has the sensibility and the sensitivity.
Feel the aspects around you and a poem will emerge from within,” noted the writer. Comparing poetry to life, he said the poetry can not be scientifically or mathematically defined, just as how life can not be defined. Do not draw any boundaries to poem, insisted Gulzar.
Pointing out at the ways how the poetry has changed from time to time, he said from the rhymes to blank verses to prose-poem, the poetry has seen various styles. The prose-poem which is the dominating style at present has showed a new dimension to the poetry.
The prose-poem has ensured that a poem does not need rhymes to be called as poem, but all it needs is the feeling that it generates. Hence, even a prose can sound like a poem.
On translation of poems
Replying to a question in an interaction session with the audience, Gulzar said that it is not necessary that a translator who translates a poem should feel the poem in the same way as felt by the original writer.
“The theme of my poetry may not be retained in the translated version as naturally the translator enjoys the freedom to perceive it on his own.
Mistakes do happen with translation, but we have to live with it, as long as there is no major misinterpretation in the translated version,” he said.
‘I stand by my poems’
On asked about the transformation he has undergone from a writer who frequently wrote romantic lyrics to that of a poet who is writing for today’s generation, he said that he had no problem in delivering poems to the present youth in their own language.
“I have written the latest songs like ‘Beedi jalyele’ and ‘Kajrare’ which will suit the youth. If this is the language the present generation asks for, then I am ready to give it.
However, these songs are not as slang as they appear to be, they do have inner meaning,” he said. Though admitting that he was a little handicapped with the songs in demand by the present generation, he said he is satisfied with his work and he stands by it.
His talk accompanied by frequent Shayris and poems, adding a soothing experience to the talk.