एउटा कविलाई भेट्दा (When You Meet a Poet)

एउटा कविलाई भेट्दा

आफ्नो आस्था छोडीछोडी

तपाईँले कुनै कविलाई नपत्याउनु,

बलियो भुईँमा टेकेको मनलाई

त्यो बाहिरियाको स्वप्नमा नरत्याउनु,,

जब कविले हाँस्न मन लाग्यो भन्छ

तब उसको शैशवदेखिको सामथ्र्य

नहाँस्नुमा खर्चित हुन्छ,

ऊ हाँसोको  चित्र जोगाउन चाहन्छ

भक्तले दियोलाई हात पोलुञ्जेल बार लाएझैँ,

हाँसोलाई पर्खालले हुरीलाईझैँ छेकिरहन्छ,

स–साना छेकबारहरुको एकलास घरहरुमा बसिरहन्छ

तपाईँ आफ्नो जीवन जिउन छोडेर

कविको सापटी अनुभूति नसुन्नु,

तपाईँ भुलिएर रोकिनासाथ

उसको यात्रा अघि बढ्छ,

तपाईँ अघि अडिएर ऊ शिखर चढिसक्छ

टोलाएरै तीर्थ घुम्दछ कहाँकहाँ

ऊ त छटाएरै सङ्ग्राम जित्दछ

जब कविले “मर्नु भयो, मर्छु” भन्छ

कहिल्यै नठान्नुहोस् ऊ पीडाको पहाडले थिचिएको छ,

समीप नजानुहोस् ढाडस र साथको सौगात लिएर

ऊ खस्नुको रोमाञ्च हेर्न यति लालायित हुन्छ

कि बाँचिरहन्छ मृत्युकल्पनाको ओखती पिएर

एउटा जीवनमा आफूलाई अनेकपल्ट मारिरहन्छ

यही अम्मल छोड्न नसकेर बाँचिरहन्छ

कविलाई अपत्यारले हेर्नुहोला, सङ्काले श्पर्श गर्नुहोला

उसलाई आकाशमा उड्न नदिनुहोला,

धर्तीमा बस्न नदिनुहोला

बाँकी कुनै तलाऊमा तैरिन जाओस् !

ऊ प्रताडित हुनुपर्ने प्रजाति हो

सुखको सूर्यले ऊ ओइलाउँछ,

स्वतन्त्रताको जति नै बिगुल फुके पनि

आफ्नै स्वतन्त्रताको हत्यारा हो भन्ने बुझ्नुहोला

उसले यो गर् त्यो नगर् भन्ला

ऊ आफैँ भित्र–बाहिर, सोच–शरीर

निषेध र अवज्ञा हो, यो बुझ्नुहोला !

त्यो दोधारेलाई  दुई आँखाले

अरु चीजजस्तो एउटै नदेख्नुहोला !

जे भन्दैन त्यहाँ बढी हेर्नुहोला

जे भन्छ त्यहाँ धेरै नखोज्नुहोला !

When You Meet a Poet

Leaving behind your faith

Believe not in a poet,

Let not you heart standing on firm ground

Be enamored with that outsider's dream;

When a bard says he wants to laugh,

The whole of his strength is then

Expended to not laugh,

He wishes to preserve an image of laughter.

Just as a faithful fences a holy flame until his hands burn,

He keeps barricading laughter like walls to wind

He keeps residing in the desolate abode of trivial obstructions.

Leaving off living you life

Listen not to his accounts of borrowed experiences;

Just as you stop in confusion

His journey courses ahead,

Standing before you, he'll have claimed a summit.

Brooding, he pilgrimages just about anywhere

Wins wars merely being in a trance

When the poet says," I'd rather die, I'll die"

Never should you think he's pressed down by a mountain of pain,

Approach not him with presents of assurances and companionship.

So tempted is he to view the romance of fall

That he goes on living gulping on the potion of his fancies of death,

Keeps rendering himself dead for the umpteenth time in one lifetime

And survives clinging to this addictive habit he cannot get rid of.

Pray perceive a poet with incredulity, touch him with doubt,

Let him not fly in the sky

Nor lay upon land,

May he float in a lagoon someplace else!

He is of a species deserving of hardship,

He'll wither under the sunlight of contentment.

Much as he blows on the bugle of freedom

Pray understand that he is his own freedom's murderer

He might exhort ̶   Do this! Don't do that!

He is himself, in-out, mind-body

Restriction and violation, pray understand that!

See not with your two eyes this two-face

One like any other thing,

Seek more in what he keeps silent on

Look less in on what he breaks word.

3/26/2013