4 verses · ~1 min
कितनी बार तुम्हें देखा पर आंखें नहीं भरीं
सीमित उर में चिर असीम सौन्दर्य समा न सका बीन मुग्ध बेसुथ कुरंग मन रोके नहीं रूका यों तो कई बार पी पी कर जी भर गया छका एक बूंद थी किन्तु कि जिसकी तृष्णा नहीं मरी कितनी बार तुम्हें देखा पर आंखें नहीं भरीं
कई बार दुर्बल मन पिछली कथा भूल बैठा हर पुरानी, विजय समझ कर इतराया ऐंठा अंदर ही अंदर था लेकिन एक चोर पैठा एक झलक में झुलसी मधु स्मृति फिर हो गयी हरी कितनी बार तुम्हें देखा पर आंखें नहीं भरीं
शब्द रूप रस गंध तुम्हारी कण कण में बिखरी मिलन सांझ की लाज सुनहरी ऊषा बन निखरी हाय गूंथने के ही क्रम में कलिका खिली झरी भर भर हारी किन्तु रह गयी रीती ही गगरी कितनी बार तुम्हें देखा पर आंखें नहीं भरीं
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 and the Golden Deer
This evocative scene captures a poignant moment from the Ramayana, the ancient Sanskrit epic that remains a heartbeat of Indian spiritual life. Here, we witness the noble Sita in the forest, her gaze fixed upon the mysterious golden deer, a creature of celestial beauty and deceptive charm. Stephen Reid, working in the early twentieth century, approaches the myth with a refined, romantic sensibility that highlights the vulnerability of the divine queen at the brink of her great trial. The soft, ethereal quality of the landscape mirrors the sacred atmosphere of the Dandaka forest, reminding us of the timeless nature of duty, longing, and the subtle threads of fate that weave through human existence.
Open the viewer →