8 verses · ~2 min
इतने पलाश क्यों फूट पड़े है एक साथ इनको समेटने को इतने आँचल भी तो चाहिए, ऐसी कतार लौ की दिन-रात जलेगी जो किस-किस की पुतली से क्या-क्या कहिए।
क्या आग लग गई है पानी में डालों पर प्यासी मीनों की भीड़ लग गई है, नाहक इतनी भूबरि धरती ने उलची है फागुन के स्वर को भीड़ लग गई है।
अवकाश कभी था इनकी कलियाँ चुन-चुन कर होली की चोली रसमय करने का सारे पहाड़ की जलन घोल अनजानी डगरों में बगरी पिचकारी भरने का।
अब ऐसी दौड़ा-धूपी में खिलना बेमतलब है, इस तरह खुले वीरानों में मिलना बेमतलब है।
अब चाहूँ भी तो क्या रुककर रस में मिल सकता हूँ? चलती गाड़ी से बिखरे- अंगारे गिन सकता हूँ।
अब तो काफी हाऊस में रस की वर्षा होती है प्यालों के प्रतिबिंबों में पुलक अमर्षा होती है।
टेबिल-टेबिल पर टेसू के दल पर दल खिलते हैं दिन भर के खोए क्षण क्षण भर डालों पर मिलते हैं।
पत्ते अब भी झरते पर कलियाँ धुआँ हो गई हैं अंगारों की ग्रंथियाँ हवा में हवा हो गई हैं।
इति
The Poet
शिवमंगल सिंह ‘सुमन’
Shivamangal Singh 'Suman'
1915 · 2002
There is a particular form of literary courage that has nothing to do with defiance or rebellion the courage of choosing to remain human when circumstances press hard toward despair. Shivamangal Singh Suman possessed this courage in extraordinary measure. He wrote across the full breadth of the progressive literary movement in Hindi, and his work bears the mark of a mind that refused to choose between aesthetic beauty and social conscience, insisting with deep patience that both are necessary if poetry is to perform its highest function. His verses walk the razor's edge between lyric grace and the weight of lived suffering never collapsing into sentimentality, never hardening into polemic. Born in Unnao in 1915, Suman rose to lead Vikram University as its Vice Chancellor, becoming one of the rare figures who moved between the world of intellectual administration and the world of pure creative fire without losing his substance in either. He received the Padma Bhushan and Sahitya Akademi recognition, but his true monument is the quality of sustenance his verses have provided across generations of readers who found in him a poet who understood that the will to go on is, in itself, a form of sacred defiance.
Paired Painting
Sita's Agni Pariksha
This poignant scene captures the climactic moment from the Ramayana, where Sita, the embodiment of devotion and purity, undergoes the Agni Pariksha, or test of fire. As she sits amidst the rising flames, her serene expression radiates an unyielding inner strength. To her right, Rama, his form painted in the ethereal blue of the infinite, and Lakshmana look on with profound gravity, dressed in ascetic leaf garments. Beside them, Hanuman stands as a witness to this act of supreme sacrifice. The painting serves as a meditative reflection on the resilience of the feminine spirit, illustrating a sorrowful yet transcendent chapter in Indian epic history.
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