Abhijit Naskar's Blog - Posts Tagged "poet-with-most-sonnets"

"Inert objects look good on the mantelpiece. That’s about all. They have no other role under the sun. Don’t be a showpiece on the mantelpiece my friend – be a mental piece, and blow your top every time you witness an injustice taking place, and do whatever is necessary to restrain the wrong."

“Mental Piece (The Sonnet)

In the west you call me humanitarian scientist,
Somewhere in the middle you call me pragmatist.
In the middle-east you call me sufi or dervish,
In the east you call me advaitin or nondualist.
No matter how you see me, you all are my own,
Each of you is family, each of you is my home.
Then there are those who ardently call me fraud,
Which also is a sign of love, but yet unknown.
I am not a person, prison or path, for I am vicdan,
I’m saadet, my friend, I am the spirit of unification.
Call the sun as you like, it still brightens the world,
In the domain of realization, to label is desecration.
All labels are equally right yet equally incomplete.
In a world full of showpiece I am but a mental piece.”

“Come, sit next to me.
As you will, so will be.
As long as you are next to me,
Even your silence is tranquility.

I know it hurts like the dickens!
Yet every wound delivers valiance.
At your every whim I am your servant.
But to every wound you are your treatment.

Your trouble is my trouble.
Be not disheartened if the world frowns.
Clouds are nothing but herald of sunshine.
Pain of today is tomorrow’s crown.

So I say, come, sit next to me.
As you will, so will be.”

“Gel, yanımda otur.
Nasıl istiyorsan, öyle olur.
İstemiyorsan konuşma, gerek yok.
Yanımdayken, sessizliğin bile sükundur.

Biliyorum, çok acıyor!
Biliyorum, bu dünya çok zalim!
Istiyorum ama soylemem – elimi tut!
Çünkü senin yaranın ilacı sadece sensin.

Senin derdin benim derdim.
Her dert insana cesaret veriyor.
Bulutlar güneş ışığının habercileridir.
Bugünün acısı yarın tacı oluyor.

Hadi gel, burada otur.
Nasıl istiyorsan, öyle olur.”

There is a reason I never translate my works,
You can translate information but not sentiment.
So I carve humanity with not one but many tongues,
Yet due to alphabetical wall, much remain unspoken.
Human and culture must grow together in harmony,
All traditions of stagnation must be thrown away.
If a human can come forward across conditioning,
Why can’t a culture do the same and meet halfway!
I sacrificed my language so I could feel you better,
Now I can’t read the tongue of Tagore I was raised in.
Such an uncultured poet whose culture is the world,
Asks the cultures with borders just one little thing.
Take some lessons from Mustafa Kemal in modernizing.
A culture is enhanced, not diminished, by latinizing.

“World Administrative Service (The Sonnet)

Awake, Arise, Oh Saint Soldiers,
Don’t stop till you reach your goal!
Awake, Arise, Oh Saint Soldiers,
Don’t stop till your dreams are whole!
Awake, Arise, Oh Saint Soldiers,
Don’t stop till there is no injustice.
Awake, Arise, Oh Saint Soldiers,
Don’t stop till the world is in peace.
Awake, Arise, Oh Saint Soldiers,
Do not stop till love is the only way.
Awake, Arise, Oh Saint Soldiers,
Don’t stop till all prejudice is thrown away.
Civilization is born when all our sentience converge.
Puny minds make puny-verse, uni-minds make universe.”

“Uyan Be İnsan (Dünya Hizmeti Şiir)

Uyan be insan, kalk be insan,
Amacına ulaşana kadar durma!
Uyan be insan, kalk be insan,
Hayaller gerçek olana kadar durma!
Uyan be insan, kalk be insan,
Her yerde adalet olana kadar durma.
Uyan be insan, kalk be insan,
Dünyaya barış gelene kadar durma.
Uyan be insan, kalk be insan,
Her yerde aşk olana kadar durma.
Uyan be insan, kalk be insan,
İnsanlar insan olana kadar durma.
Hadi kalk be kardeşim, bu dünya sana emanet.
Kendin için değil, insanlar için mücadele et.”

“¡Levántate Oh Luchador!
(El Soneto del Servicio Mundial)

Levántate oh luchador, adelante oh amador,
¡Hasta que alcances tu meta, no te pares!
Levántate oh luchador, adelante oh amador,
¡Hasta que hagas realidad tus sueños, no pares!
Levántate oh luchador, adelante oh amador,
Hasta que termine toda injusticia, no pares.
Levántate oh luchador, adelante oh amador,
Hasta que haya paz en la tierra, no te pares.
Levántate oh luchador, adelante oh amador,
Hasta que todos sean amantes, no te pares.
Levántate oh luchador, adelante oh amador,
Hasta que humanidad sea la realidad, no te pares.
Un nuevo mundo es la creación de nuevos humanos.
No lo olvides, la lucha de uno es la lucha de todos.”

Culture can either further the cause of life,
Or it can hinder life, love and liberty.
If it hinders, it belongs in the dump,
If it furthers, it is an ally of humanity.

Rigidity is drag on expansion,
For it makes chains out of roots.
Roots give ground beneath our feet,
While chains only cripple all our move.

Even a flower can’t survive in last week’s water,
Yet you expect the mind to thrive that way.
Let the mind fly higher than known heights,
And all light and life will find their way.

With all our understanding of the speed of light,
We’re yet to cross the distance from heart to heart.
With all our fancy equipment of communication,
We are yet to listen to those unheard.

I wrote most of my works,
On broken down laptops.
Perhaps that’s why they work well,
With this broken down world.
I don’t write to butter the assheads of pomposity,
My duty is to till the soil of grassroots reform.
That’s why I feel at home creating on humble machines,
The very thought of fancy devices makes my stomach turn.
I once said to you, ripped jeans and twenty dollar shirt,
That’s how we change the world, how we build the world.
Often a fancy exterior is indicative of a rotten interior,
It’s a simple life that facilitates a magnificent world.
I don’t need thousand dollar machines to cause ascension.
Give me a keyboard, I’ll give you revolution.

“Reform the politicians, you ensure reform in society for a few decades. Reform the citizens, you ensure reform in society for centuries.”

“Representation is Degradation (The Sonnet)

Nationalism is but a precursor to fascism,
Representation is but a precursor to corruption.
Delegation is but a precursor to destitution,
Law-abidance is but a precursor to degradation.
Representation without accountability is just,
As undemocratic as taxation without representation.
Trading in one party for another is not change,
But merely the re-initiation of prehistoric division.
Democracy that shows no sign of nonpartisanism,
Is but a petri dish of prejudice most blinding.
Such a democracy stuck on representation,
Is but a silent dictatorship in the making.
Neither law nor party loyalty will elevate the society.
All my hope, therefore, lies upon civilian responsibility.”

“When the civilians have grown out of the need for government, and are capable enough to carry the responsibility of their society on their own, there will be no reason for the state to exist. Thus, having served their brief role in the evolution of society, all constructs of state, government and representation will go extinct on their own – just like the tail on our back disappeared when we had no use for them, once we started to walk upright on our feet, breaking free from our traditional habit of hanging from the trees.”

Brave is not the one who has no dark corners in their mind,
Brave is the one who is friends with their dark corners.
Courageous is not the one who never sheds a single tear,
Courageous is the one who draws strength from their tears.
A sound mind is not one that has no superstition,
A sound mind is one that has a grip over its superstition.
A sane mind is not one that does not believe in fiction,
A sane mind is one that knows good fiction from bad fiction.
Education is needed, but not mere education of the head,
What’s really needed is education of the whole being.
It is easy to fill the head with facts and figures,
Use a fact to lift the world, then you’re an educated being.
More than in head and body, we gotta grow up in heart.
A billion pounds of head is worthless, if there is no heart.

Most dread the very notion of dark,
Darkness strikes horror in their heart.
Yet darkness gives me a sense of calm,
I feel quite at home when in dark.
Darkness makes me alive,
Darkness gives me flight.
Darkness makes me aware,
Of the tiniest glint of light.
Darkness electrifies my dampened veins,
It pours back my nerves with vigor.
Just when everything seems to fall apart,
The mind awakens with unforeseen power.
So, never try to keep darkness at bay.
Once befriended darkness takes you a long way.

Better deemed a coward than forward,
For there is too much at stake.
Stand ready to wait till infinity,
Without violating her personal space.
She’s not your bonerville,
Until she gives you consent.
Remember, consent is the line,
Between a baboon and a sapiens.
Expose your feeling with your gestures,
Earn her trust without forcing yourself.
Keep your libido down, below your knee,
Till you are asked to strip all restraint.
It is no man that turns a beast at the sight of woman.
Real Man is a father, friend and lover – all in one.