| Username |
Post |
| ashu |
Posted
on 19-Mar-01 11:39 AM
Dear Adwiti,
As someone who likes to read poetry (but doesn't
write any himself), I am delighted to learn about
your literary achievements.
Congratulations!!
Thanks too to Biswo for bringing you to our
collective attention.
If you don't mind, I do have a few questions: please
take your time to post your replies.
1) How did you start writing poetry? And why poetry?
2) Who are some other poets/writers you
admire/respect and recommend to others?
3) For someone like me, who struggles to understand
almost all the poems he reads, what would you
advise to make these struggels easier?
oohi
ashu
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| Adwiti Subba |
Posted
on 19-Mar-01 01:41 PM
Namaste Ashu,
Thank you very much for showing interest in my art.
Hajur lai Namaskaar!
1) How did you start writing poetry? And why poetry?
I have this saying " Poetry, as an art is a study of truth in enchanting words".
I started writing poetry from when I was only seven years old. My father Mr. NP Subba, used to read us poetry from as far as I can remember. I have a very visual imagination. Almost everything I see is in an abstract dimension. I paint pictures with my words. It is to do with the romance and the passion I feel towards life and living. Why Poetry???....Because this is what comes to me most naturally. Because this is also the most romantic medium to communicate with.
2) Who are some other poets/writers you
admire/respect and recommend to others?
Have you read Stanley Kunitz? He is the new Poet Laureate
of the new century. An example from one of my favourite poems,
"Touch Me."
An excerpt:
So let the battered old willow
thrash against the windowpanes
and the house timbers creak.
Darling, do you remember
the man you married? Touch me,
remind me who I am."
I also like T S Elliot and his flow. Classical poets such as Wordsworth's words( tongue twister there!!)never fails to move me. E E cummings has a very avant-garde style. I also happen to love some Nepali poets such as Agam Singh Giri, who wrote "Yudha Ra Yodha"
where he writes
" Samrangana ko bibhatsa kholahal chatti bhari, bhari bokera, Yudha stal ko ashruyukta krundan ankha bhari, bhari bokera" I must say Ashu that the passion that I feel from some Nepali poets have been a very influential factor in my writings.
3) For someone like me, who struggles to understand
almost all the poems he reads, what would you
advise to make these struggels easier?
Ashu, nothing should be a struggle, especially not art. Art is about enjoyment and upliftment and movement. Try not to make too much out of what someone has written, be it poetry or prose. You see the poem as you interpret it, as you understand it. Don't try and understand the poem from the writer's point of view, because all is relative. And, you may come up with something entirely different and interesting from a certain angle and then that will be your understanding. You will be amazed at what you can come up with!!!
And advise for aspiring writers...be at one with the subject you are writing about. If you are writing about the sky..be the sky, if you are writing about love be Love. All will fall in place once you write from within.
I hope this will help you in your furture endeavours as a poet.
Namaskar ani Dhanyabaad,
Adwiti Subba
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| ashu |
Posted
on 19-Mar-01 08:39 PM
Dear Adwiti,
Many thanks for answering my questions.
Though NOT a poet and a part-time romantic :-),
I just like to read poetry in my spare time to
draw inspiration for my day-to-day work.
Anyway, I have an idea: Hom Raj is right; more
people in Nepal may like to know your work
better.
And so, my question is: Is it all right for me,
Biswo or anyone else here to keep on asking you more
questions related to your craft?
That way, say, in about a week, what
we will have is a full-length interview, which
I can then edit it and submit it to Dikshya
Thakuri at The Kathmandu Post for publication.
Dikshya is the editor of the Sunday Supplement
section.
I may need your picture, and that you can scan
and send it to me later.
The 'author' of the interview could be just
"members of the GBNC Web site", with credits
given to all whose questions appear in the final
version of your Kathmandu Post ko interview.
This could be one way for us all to ask you
questions, get to know your work better,
and use it all for publciity for you
in Kathmandu? What do you think?
San, the Web Master, would you have any
objections?
oohi
ashu
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| Adwiti Subba |
Posted
on 19-Mar-01 09:20 PM
Dear Ashu,
What a wonderful idea!!! It shows camaraderie and communial identification among the Nepalis in this country.
I would be more than happy to answer any questions you or anyone else may have. I am willing to share my art to my own community.
And I think that it is a great idea. Anytime I can encourage artists I feel very fulfilled and inspired myself.
I will be visiting Nepal sometime in May and would be open to
a Poetry recital from my latest book " Verses From the Himalayas".
In the mean time let me know if you need any publicity information. My publisher can provide news clippings from America and photographs as well.
Namaste'
Adwiti Subba
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| Biswo |
Posted
on 19-Mar-01 09:57 PM
Dear Ashu and Adwiti:
I commend Ashu for his initiative in this regard.I also support
his idea of questioning Adwiti this week, and sending it to
TKP for publication.As for credit, Let me delegate Ashu to use
his own discretion in this regard .I also hope that she will
recite a poem in 'Martin Chautari' when she visits Nepal.
My question to Adwiti:
1. Adwiti, you said:
"I have a very (palpable?) visual imagination. Almost everything I
see is in an abstract dimension. I paint pictures with my words."
I guess I understand what you mean. Of course, poetry is first
an imagination, then realization of this imagination into words.
And then, as a reader, you seem to be pretty anarchic. You want
reader to enjoy the poem by their own imagination. As you said:
"Ashu, nothing should be a struggle, especially not art. Art is
about enjoyment and upliftment and movement. Try not to make too
much out of what someone has written, be it poetry or prose."
It surely implies that you want a poem(or art) to be polymorphic,
and allow representation in different ways.As a writer, how will
you feel when the poem you wrote is understood by readers in the
sense that you didn't intend originally?
2. What do you feel about Nepalese poetry (including within and
with out Nepal)?
You are probably aware of pitiful state of Nepalese English
poetry, especially in comparison to the Indian English writers.
How can we change this situation? You know it is very important
that we remain competitive with other people in the world.How
can we ameliorate this situation?
Thank you very much and wish you good luck.
---*** ----**** ----**** ----**** -----****
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| Adwiti Subba |
Posted
on 20-Mar-01 09:53 AM
"It surely implies that you want a poem(or art) to be polymorphic, and allow representation in different ways. As a writer, how will you feel when the poem you wrote is understood by readers in the sense that you didn't intend originally?"
What I write comes through me but does not BELONG to me in a form of an attachment. I cannot control how and what people feel and think.
I would like to think of my art as being like water,
taking any form and shape
yet not changing the essential subject matter.
2. What do you feel about Nepalese poetry (including within and
with out Nepal)?
You are probably aware of pitiful state of Nepalese English
poetry, especially in comparison to the Indian English writers.
How can we change this situation? You know it is very important
that we remain competitive with other people in the world. How
can we ameliorate this situation?
The focus should go to Developing and encouraging Nepalese literature as well. There are many French and German writers like Camus and Sartre’ and Bauderlaire, whose works have been translated into English, and they have a very strong presence in English literature. This can be considered. However, I strongly believe that the Nepalese language in itself is so beautiful and expressive that the language itself also deserves recognition.
Change this situation? Ameliorate the situation of Nepalese English poetry? This is a topic for a thesis Biswa. I cannot take the authority to give solutions in such a large scale. The change has to come from within the society….the solution lies within every person in the intellectual community of Nepal. “ Little grains of sand make a mighty desert” I am just a humble writer doing what I can as an individual in the literary society.
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