4 verses · ~1 min
कालिदास! सच-सच बतलाना इन्दुमती के मृत्युशोक से अज रोया या तुम रोये थे? कालिदास! सच-सच बतलाना!
शिवजी की तीसरी आँख से निकली हुई महाज्वाला में घृत-मिश्रित सूखी समिधा-सम कामदेव जब भस्म हो गया रति का क्रंदन सुन आँसू से तुमने ही तो दृग धोये थे कालिदास! सच-सच बतलाना रति रोयी या तुम रोये थे?
वर्षा ऋतु की स्निग्ध भूमिका प्रथम दिवस आषाढ़ मास का देख गगन में श्याम घन-घटा विधुर यक्ष का मन जब उचटा खड़े-खड़े तब हाथ जोड़कर चित्रकूट से सुभग शिखर पर उस बेचारे ने भेजा था जिनके ही द्वारा संदेशा उन पुष्करावर्त मेघों का साथी बनकर उड़ने वाले कालिदास! सच-सच बतलाना पर पीड़ा से पूर-पूर हो थक-थककर औ' चूर-चूर हो अमल-धवल गिरि के शिखरों पर प्रियवर! तुम कब तक सोये थे? रोया यक्ष कि तुम रोये थे!
कालिदास! सच-सच बतलाना!
इति
The Poet
नागार्जुन
Nagarjun
1911 · 1998
Vaidyanath Mishra, universally known as Nagarjun, was a literary force of nature who absolutely refused to bow before power. Born in 1911 in the Darbhanga district of Bihar, he earned the title of Janakavi or the poet of the people through decades of unyielding progressive writing. He wrote in both Hindi and Maithili, winning the Sahitya Akademi Award for his Maithili collection Patrahin Nagna Gachh. Nagarjun was a restless traveler and a committed activist who actively participated in peasant movements and went to prison several times. His poetry is stripped of all artificial elegance. It speaks directly with the raw, biting anger of the hungry, the marginalized, and the exploited. Whether he was exposing political corruption or writing tenderly about the first rains on parched village earth, his words carried the undeniable scent of the soil. He died in 1998, but he remains the ultimate benchmark for resistance poetry in India. He proved that true poetry does not reside in the palaces of kings, but in the sweat and struggle of the common folk.
Paired Painting
The Banished Yaksha
Abanindranath Tagore breathes life into the poignant verses of Kalidasa, capturing the profound melancholy of the Yaksha, a celestial being exiled from his home. Seated in the dense, shadowed forests of Ramagiri, the Yaksha reaches out toward the darkening clouds, his soul yearning to send a message of love to his distant bride. Tagore utilizes the wash technique to create a dreamlike, ethereal atmosphere, where the boundary between the mortal world and the divine realm dissolves into the misty, verdant canopy. This painting serves as an evocative testament to the resilience of human longing: it remains a masterwork of Indian emotional expression, echoing the eternal quest for connection across vast distances.
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