The Cartographer

The Cartographer

Between the lines it’s you,
absent, but a silent presence
just as the rain is absent in the passing clouds.
There you are, absent, in every empty space
of life. In every gap of time
on these panic-stricken roads.
I don’t look out any window,
I don’t stop at any door
I don’t watch the clock
I hear no one’s call.
As geography changes its borders,
fear is my sole companion.


From Ret ka Pul (Bridge of Sand, 2012)

Translation from Hindi
Lucy Rosenstein, Bernard O’Donoghue

नक़्शानवीस

पंक्तियों के बीच अनुपस्थित हो
तुम एक ख़ामोश पहचान
जैसे भटकते बादलों में अनुपस्थित बारिश,
तुम अनुपस्थित हो जीवन के हर रिक्त स्थान में
समय के अंतराल में
इन आतंकित गलियों में ।
मैं देखता नहीं किसी खिड़की की ओर
रुकता नहीं किसी दरवाज़े के सामने
देखता नहीं घड़ी को
सुनता नहीं किसी पुकार को,
बदलती हुई सीमाओं के भूगोल में
मेरा भय ही मेरे साथ है ।


(रेत का पुल, 2012)

©  मोहन राणा

The Cormorant < Mohan Rana>

The Cormorant

Soon a new season will start
If there is spring in this latitude
I'll change my clothes
And stroll around guided by maps
Trees will come into leaf
Birds fly back from near and far
I hope there will be no news
Of a new war
I'll clear my throat to say the half-spoken but fall silent
May this spring be so long that the memory of
Autumn does not return to the solitude of words

Spring is getting shorter each year
Each year grows shorter in spring,
So short that sometimes
Only two seasons seem to be left now -
Good and bad
Joy and sorrow
Love and fear
You and I
May spring and autumn be divided between us
And the withering rain remain all year long

I thought, let's catch the fragrance of a taste coming from the kitchen
On my sleeve and write it down
Wishing to understand something in the quiet back yard
Searching in a tiny space for a corner to stand,
Time may come soon
To divide the world
All has to be forgotten in order to remember
Alone with the inventory of necessary baggage,
Life requires not just breath
But flames of love in mind's shadows -
The hand which breaks the fall

Small change in the abacus adding the loan of drudgery
Nervous in the decrepit present, feeling my dry cheeks,
I haven't yet seen the past
From inside the mirror
When I leap in its luminous unknown
I lose one thing to gain another

 

 [2009} From collection 'RET KA PUL' 2012

Translation from Hindi by Lucy Rosenstein 

©  Mohan Rana 2019

एक किताब पर प्रतिक्रिया

एक किताब पर प्रतिक्रिया

यहाँ जमकर बारिश हो रही है यानि बाहर भीतर धुलाई ,
अच्छे मौसम की आशा में हम कपड़े धोते हैं
 पर समय के निशान शायद प्रकृति भी नहीं मिटा पाती
और वे और गहरे और पक्के होते जाते हैं। 
इन पंक्तियों के संस्‍कारों की संवेदना पुर्नभव हो घनीभूत  होती जाती है
लिखकर धोते धोते उन शब्दों को जो अप्रयास लौटते
सायास भूलने पर भी उन्हीं के सहारे।

©  28.8.16

रेत का पुल/ RET KA PUL

Mohan Rana's poetry is always tuned to sounds from near and afar. At the same time it captures in its images the essence of close and distant sights. In his poetry memories too play an important role. Weaving together all of these, it connects us with experiences which are very rare. They expand our vision and their subtle connections hand us some invisible strings of perception. Passing through these experiences is pleasant, yet often the questions and the sting of pain present in them provoke us to appraise reality anew. Reading his poetry acquaints us with the intimate side of daily life in a new way. At the same time, it takes us along at the speed of lightning and makes us travel through new dimensions of everyday social and family life. Written in accomplished language, his poetry attracts us also with its natural charm.
These qualities are abundantly present in Mohan Rana’s new collection. Moreover, it is notable that in it he has also invented a new poetic language for himself. These poems have a new cadence. Urdu poetic forms have been included and this naturally reminds us of the poetic range of a lyricist like Shamsher.
These poems have wide concerns. They are not only restless in their search for life-values in a changed global world; there is also a dreaminess about them. They enter the deepest folds of the psyche in a new manner, and at the same time look at the happenings in the outside world with a piercing gaze; world which is flooded with scraps of language yet language itself has to overcome this deluge to regain its pure form. This collection has made the terrain of Mohan Rana's poetry more fertile and given Hindi poetry itself a personal expression which will attract the attention of many.

Prayag Shukla   18/7/12

मोहन राणा की तीन कवितायें

मोहन राणा की तीन कवितायें

मोहन राणा

मोहन राणा ने उपरोक्त तीन कवितायें विशेष तौर पर raagdelhi.com के लिए भेजी हैं।   

Time Zone

Who is time?

कालः सुप्तेषु जागर्ति कालो हि दुरतिक्रमः ।
कालः सर्वेषु भूतेषु चरत्यविधृतः समः ।। १/२५०॥[महाभारत /आदिपर्व]

Acacia

Acacia

On waking each body assumes my guise
Pressures of everyday worldliness abound all around me
As I begin the quest for the real
Wearing yet another mask of mine
I have hung my trophies on the wall quite systematically
I have found many missing ones lending them my identity
Having occasionally posted their “gone missing” notices
Kept their memories hanging on Acacia branches, flip flops
And my socks, both were stung by nettles of the prickly clime
Now let it end, at every sigh I am more replete with the humid air
In the inertia of walking to the corner of earth, I slowly become
A winged creature void of flight, thrust into a glassy alcove
Who, with the changing directions of light
Keeps revolving on a clamp for endless revolutions
The gathering of dust on my trophies is a triumph in itself
While trying to lose the coming ones
While trying to forget written words
Dejected my falsehood was not so real
Despite my daily identifications of the invisible Aeyaar*




Translation from Hindi by Arup K Chatterjee.

*A mystical raconteur with talismanic powers to shapeshift.

A poetry reading in Zaragoza, Spain

The indian poet Mohan Rana (Delhi, 1964) reads some poems and talks about his poetry in this video, recorded in Zaragoza (Spain). Rana visited Spain in March 2016 for a poetry reading in Antígona bookshop (Zaragoza) and in Voces del Extremo poetry festival (Logroño). Poems translated from Hindi by Lucy Rosenstein and Bernard O'Donoghue.
 Video by David Francisco.
 More info about Mohan Rana in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohan_Rana

Mohan Rana · Poems (English subtitles)

Mohan Rana Chapbook SOLD OUT

यह कविता संग्रह अब उपलब्ध नहीं है आशा है,  नया संस्करण आएगा।
Mohan Rana Chapbook SOLD OUT

Published  2011

£4
Publisher: The Poetry Translation Centre
ISBN: 978-0-9560576-5-5
Featured poets: Mohan Rana
Featured translators: Bernard O’Donoghue, Lucy Rosenstein

This dual-language chapbook introduces the poetry of Indian poet Mohan Rana, translated by Bernard O'Donoghue and Lucy Rosenstein.

इतना लिखा गया चिड़िया उड़ना भूल गई

गौरया 

इतना लिखा गया चिड़िया को लेकर हिन्दी  में कि 

किसी को याद नहींउस चिड़िया का नाम
कि वह विलुप्त हो चुकी,
पर कविता में वह कमज़ोर का हक माँगती रही
रक्त की गोंद से खुंचे शब्दों  में  जैसे पंख
जो मुंडेरों से गिरते हुए भी सपने देखते हैं उड़ानों की
 

वे व्यंजक काग़ज़ के शांति दूत मान लिये गए
कवियों को पुरस्कार मिले पर परेशान वे सूचियों  में अपने नाम की मिलान ,
बचे खुचे किसी का ध्यान ही नहीं गया
शहर के आकाश पर मंडराती पर किसे चुग गई चील 

एक लंबी आवाज़ लेती  दोपहर  विगत उसांस में ।

20.3.2016 ©

श्लोक

वहाँ न दृष्टि  पहुँच सकती है, न वाणी, न ही मन ।

हम न उसे जानते हैं न यह जान पाते हैं कि उसे कैसे सिखाया जाये; 

क्योंकि 'वह' अज्ञात  है; और अविदित से भी परे है; 

ऐसा यह हमने उन पूर्वजों से सुना है

जिन्होंने ज्ञान बोध को हनारे लिए प्रगट किया है।

न तत्र चक्षुर्गच्छति न वाग्गच्छति नो मनो
न विद्मो न विजानीमो यथैतदनुशिष्यात्।
अन्यदेव तद्विदितादथो अविदितादधि।
इति शुश्रुम पूर्वेषां ये नस्तद्व्याचचक्षिरे ॥"

केनोपनिषद् / खंड 1- श्लोक 3