Rajani

Dhan Gopal Mukerji

Description

Rajani: Songs of the Night (1916) is a poetry collection by Dhan Gopal Mukerji. Published while Mukerji was a young student in California, Rajani: Songs of the Night is the debut collection of poems from the first Indian writer to gain a popular audience in the United States. Lyrical and romantic, Mukerji’s poems capture his commitment to beauty while maintaining his sense of isolation and exile as a young man living far from home. In “Bhikshu’s Song,” the collection’s opening poem, the poet greets a Buddhist monk at the door, returning in memory to his native Bengal. Repeating the Bhikshu’s mantra throughout—“Om Moni Padme Om!”—Mukerji allows himself to “drift with the stream / To [his] destination of dream.” An exile, Mukerji can only reach his homeland through memory and song, by infusing English meter with the sights and sounds of Bengal. “A singer that sings of sorrow; / Whose night knows no tomorrow; / [His] song finds its source / In its moonless immensity.” Although he never returned to his native country, Mukerji left an inspiring legacy through his literary achievement and unwavering commitment to Indian independence. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Dhan Gopal Mukerji’s Rajani: Songs of the Night is a classic of Indian American literature reimagined for modern readers.

Sujets

• Buda (desambiguación)
• Bengala
• Hindú
• Idioma bengalí
• Hindu
• Gautama Buddha
• Poetry
• Asian
• India
• Bengal
• Bengali
• Bouddha

Informations

• Publié par: Mint Editions
• Date de parution: 03 août 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781513223438
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

Rajani
Or, Songs of the Night
Dhan Gopal Mukerji
 
Rajani: Or, Songs of the Night was first published in 1922.
This edition published by Mint Editions 2021.
ISBN 9781513299976 | E-ISBN 9781513223438
Published by Mint Editions®
minteditionbooks.com
Publishing Director: Jennifer Newens
Design & Production: Rachel Lopez Metzger
Project Manager: Micaela Clark
Typesetting: Westchester Publishing Services
 
To A— C—
with friendship and gratitude
 
C ONTENTS F OREWORD I NTRODUCTION B HIKSHU’S S ONG S ONG OF THE S TARS R ASHA M EASURE T ARA- B INDU E VENING S TAR F OLLOWING THE L IGHT H ER P OET T O B EAUTY “T HE N IGHT B UILDS H ER T EMPLE OF R AIN ” “T HE R AIN B UILDS A B RIDGE ” T HE T OWER OF S ILENCE N ISHA B EFORE THE B UDDHA AT K AMAKURA “W HY S AD , L IKE A C RUSHED F LOWER ” “T AKE T HESE F LOWERS ” L OVE’S C ORONATION T O THE S UN S HORE “T HE F AIRIES D ANCE IN THE F OREST OF S ONG ” “T HE H ONEY- C OLORED M OON ” A D RAMA “W HITE M IST W INGS THE P INK- D RAPED S KY ” A FTER R EADING Y ONE N OGUCHI “G OLD AND R OSE THE C OLORS H ELD IN THE P ALETTE OF THE S KY ” “T HE M OUNTAIN P EAKS , A H ALTED A RMY ” “C ORAL- M USIC , THE S UNSET W RITES ON THE S CROLL OF THE S EA ” L UNAR R AINBOW T HE N EW B UDDHA “T HE S UN W ATERS THE P ASTURES OF H EAVEN ” M EMORY OF C HILDHOOD D AYS “A H , S LEEP- R AVISHED E YES ” “F ORBID M E N OT ” “I T I S BUT C OMING AND G OING ” T HE H EART OF A S ONG S TORM W ORSHIP “T O M Y H EART’S G ARDEN , S TEALTHILY C AME H E ” E RNEST D OWSON S EDAN B EARER’S S ONG “T HE S OUL OF D AY M IGRATES I NTO THE N IGHT ” T HE M ADMAN “W HAT D REAM- P EACOCK , THIS M OON ” “T HE S UN S INKS I NTO AN O CEAN OF M IST ” T HE S UNSET- I MAGES T HE B ELLS OF M OONLIGHT AND L EAF “S TEPS OF R OSE ” A C ONTRAST “T HE S TAR- H ANDS P LAY THE H ARP OF N IGHT ” “T HE G REEN H ILL , A P RIEST WITH H IS H OOD OF W HITE M IST ” I NTOXICATED “T HE R OSY S TREAM R OLLS D OWN THE H ILL ” T HE F LOWER- G IRL M USIC W ITHIN A M IRROR L OVE’S I NCONSISTENCIES “L AVE T HY L IMBS IN THE S TREAM OF M Y S ONG ” F LOWER OF D EATH “E YES , S AD E YES , W HAT W ORDS T HEY S PEAK ” R OSE “T HE M OON AT THE T REETOP ” O N A S TARRY N IGHT “T HE S ONG- B IRD F ALLS A SLEEP ” A P ICTURE “O NE W ORD THE S HIPS S PEAK ” “S ILVER- F OOTED D AWN ” D ANCE- W ORSHIP “S UN , M OON AND S TARS ” P LOUGHMAN’S S ONG “G ONE Y ESTERDAY’S R AIN ” “T HE A MBER D USK V EILS T HE O RANGE- T INTED S EA ” C OMING OF D AWN “T HY W ORLD I T I S ” B IRTH OF D AY
 
F OREWORD
In writing these poems, the spirit and the music of my own language, Bengali, have overlapped the English meter. No desire for experiment has created them. They came… in the shadow-light garment of the dying day… in the image of my own belovéd Bengal.
D HAN G OPAL M UKERJI
 
I NTRODUCTION
In this little volume a young Hindu scholar has tried to express in English “free verse” something of the dream-poetry of his native Bengal. The little poems are not translations, nor imitations. They are fancies of the night, “Rajani,” suggestions and bints of the emotions which the darkness awakens in the mind of a mystical scholar. In the first of the series, “Bhikshu” (mendicant), the poet, feels himself awakening as a suppliant for reality in the light of Oriental thought. With the dawn, he bails the Lotus, “Om Moni Padme Om,” as the symbol of the source whence flows the “nectar of sustenance,” the life-impulse which vivifies all living creatures.
“Rajani,” the world of baffling dreams, showers down its strange sensations, but with all these goes the bidden sense of lack of reality. Through the morning dew comes the song of the “Bhikshu,” the lute-player who has lost his scroll and makes his plea for reality.
For the rest, the verses must tell their own story. It remains for me to say, that Dhan Gopal Mukerji was born near Calcutta in 1890, that he was educated in the Universities of Calcutta, Tokyo, California and Stanford, taking his degree at Palo Alto, in 1914, as a student of Comparative Literature.
D AVID S TARR J ORDAN
Stanford University,
February 18, 1916.
 
1 B HIKSHU’S S ONG
A Bhikshu at the door,
Om Moni Padme Om!
A lute-player without a scroll;
A boatswain without his toll.
My barque is laden with life,
Bound for the shore of light;
Let it drift with the stream
To its destination of dream!
A Bhikshu at the door,
Om Moni Padme Om!
A singer that sings of sorrow;
Whose night knows no tomorrow;
My song finds its source
In its moonless immensity
Bound with the girdle of sleep;
Love’s Nirvana, the only pearl in its deep.
Bhikshu, singer, sorrower,
I see the face of thy star;
Om Moni Padme Om!