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Magadh

 
Shrikant Verma (Author) Rahul Soni (Translator)
Synopsis

The 56 poems that make up this collection take on a variety of voices commoners, wanderers, people close to power (but never in power) that range in tone from nostalgic to ironic to bitter to outraged. While Cavafy, Borges and Calvino are easy touchstones, it is Vermas keen political eye that sets him apart, and Magadh remains a unique book one of the most important collections of Hindi poetry, and the masterpiece of a great world poet. Magadh, Shrikant Verma’s crowning achievement, was published in Hindi in 1984 and is one of the key works of late 20th century Indian poetry. Speaking both archly and urgently through unreliable narrators—commoners, statesmen, wanderers, people close to power (but never in power) — often like a kind of prudent and duplicitous advice for the ears of monarchs, the 56 poems range widely in tone from nostalgic to ironic to bitter to sorrowful.

In a style that is both minimalist and richly allusive, Verma tells scathing tales of the decline and deep inner corruption of ancient empires on the Indian peninsula—tales of guilt, loss, arrogance, ignorance and karma— with unmistakable contemporary echoes. Interestingly, Verma knew at close handexactly how ideas could be abused by power: he had himself been a senior member and spokesman of theCongress party in the late 1970s and early 1980s, during some of India’s darkest times. While Cavafy, Borges and Calvino might be easy touchstones, it is Verma's keen political eye that sets him apart, and Magadh remains a unique book — one of the most important collections of modern Hindi poetry, and the masterpiece of a great world poet.

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About the author

Shrikant Verma

Shrikant Vermas Magadh invokes names from history, myth and literature of places (Magadh, Vaishali, Kapilvastu, Amravati, Hastinapur) and of people (Chandragupta, Amrapali, Vasantsena, Rohitashva) to chronicle the decline of once great empires. In a language that is at once sparse and richly allusive, direct and elliptical, repetitive and paradoxical, he lays bare the confusions and contradictions of his era. Verma was the spokesman of the ruling Congress party during the Emergency, and had the opportunity to observe at close quarters what the abuse of power could turn a on idealistic government into. The poems are undoubtedly a product of their time, yet remain both historical and timeless.

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Bibliographic information

Title Magadh
Format Hardcover
Date published: 21.11.2013
Edition 1st. ed.
Language: English
isbn 8192129527, 9788192129525
length v+157p., 24cm.