Sandhya: Or, Songs of Twilight

Dhan Gopal Mukerji

Description

Sandhya, or Songs of Twilight (1917) is a poetry collection by Dhan Gopal Mukerji. Published while Mukerji was a young student in California, Sandhya, or Songs of Twilight is the second 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 “Symbolism,” the collection’s opening poem, Mukerji is a poet in search of a song: “Tongueless the bell! / Lute without a song! / It is not night / It is God’s dawn, / Silence its unending song.” Desperate for the beauty and truth of the world outside “pain’s window,” he finds “Faith’s candle lit,” lighting “Eternity’s scroll” for the soul to read at last. Lyrically gifted and profoundly mysterious, Mukerji presents his creative process as a struggle with human emotions. Later, he grounds his feeling in the country he left behind: “O, frail, faint call which I seek to echo! / O, breath of love laden with the aroma of my soul! / Why seek I ever without, O guest at my door?” In “After a Bengali Song,” he provides a powerful image of isolation and longing from a heart that remains “without” for as long as his exile continues. 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 Sandhya, or Songs of Twilight is a classic of Indian American literature reimagined for modern readers.

Sujets

• Idioma bengalí
• Poetry
• Asian
• India
• Bengali

Informations

• Publié par: Mint Editions
• Date de parution: 21 juin 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781513223452
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

Sandhya
Or, Songs of Twilight
Dhan Gopal Mukerji
 
Sandhya: Or, Songs of Twilight was first published in 1917.
This edition published by Mint Editions 2021.
ISBN 9781513299952 | E-ISBN 9781513223452
Published by Mint Editions®
minteditionbooks.com
Publishing Director: Jennifer Newens
Design & Production: Rachel Lopez Metzger
Project Manager: Micaela Clark
Typesetting: Westchester Publishing Services
 
C ONTENTS F OREWORD 1. S YMBOLISM 2. S OURCE OF S INGING 3. “W ITH P URPLE S HADOWS THE M IST M EASURES THE I NFINITE S EA ” 4. “O, O LD ! O, N EW !” 5. “T HE F AR A WAY C ALLED H ER ” 6. L ASSITUDE 7. “A H ! P ALE C OOL L IPS THAT B URN ” 8. F ORLORN 9. A FTER A B ENGALI S ONG 10. M OONRISE 11. A T V ENTURA , C ALIFORNIA 12. “T HE S AME A IR THAT Y OU B REATHE ” 13. “W HY T HIS R ETURN ?” 14. “B Y THE V ERGE OF THE W OODLAND ” 15. T HE D REAM OF H IS S OUL 16. T HE E URASIAN 17. “I N THE P ERFUMED S HRINE OF L OVE ” 18. T HE I NFIRM B EGGAR S INGS 19. “K ISS , M Y L OVE , K ISS ” 20. C OLOR -H ARMONIES 21. S ANATAN (T HE A BSOLUTE ) 22. C OMING OF THE F OG 23. “I N L OVE ’ S A FTERGLOW , F ULL OF S TARS ” 24. T HE E ND 25. T HE C ONFLUENCE 26. “I N THE D EEPS OF D REAM ” 27. T O L EO B. M IHAN 28. C HOPIN ’ S F UNERAL M ARCH 29. “I N THE G OLDEN A FTERGLOW Y OU L AY ” 30. H ENRIK I BSEN 31. A FTER H EARING “M Y O LD K ENTUCKY H OME ” 32. T HE C OMING OF THE T IDE OF N IGHT 33. D EAD L OVE 34. “I T IS THE S AME T WILIGHT , D EAR ” 35. W EARINESS 36. “A C ALL , N OT A S ONG ” 37. R EMORSE 38. P OET 39. W ANDERER 40. A T D AWN 41. “F ROM H ER M ANY -C OLORED B OW N ATURE ” 42. “I F W ORDS F AIL , S ONG W ILL C OME ” 43. R AINY N IGHT 44. G HOSTS 45. R AIN 46. E VENING W ORSHIP 47. “T HE R OSY M IST S TILLY P OLISHES THE R OUND M IRROR ” 48. “T HE S UN ’ S G OLDEN S PEAR ” 49. T RUCE 50. A P ARALLEL 51. “‘N OTHING E NDURES ,’ Y OU S AID ” 52. D ISAPPOINTMENT 53. B UDDHA 54. “A SK M E N OT TO S TAND AT T HY F RIENDSHIP ’ S G ATE ” 55. “G OLDEN V INES T HEY ” 56. A T S UNDOWN 57. “T EARS W ELL O UT F ROM M Y H EART ” 58. “A T L AST T HOU C OMEST ” 59. “T HE L INGERING L IGHT OF THE S UN ” 60. “I H AVE D RUNK Y OUR T EARS W ITH I NSATIATE L IPS ” 61. S OUND B UTTERFLIES (I N A F OUNTAIN ) 62. “E VEN IN S ADNESS T HOU A RT B ESIDE M E ” 63. “B Y THE S EA OF S LEEP W ALKS W HITE -R OBED N IGHT ” 64. F AREWELL (A FTER A H INDUSTANI S ONG ) 65. S ATIETY 66. “D ROWSY THE N OONDAY A IR ” 67. C HATTERTON 68. “A S UMMER S ONG IT WAS ” 69. “W HO K NOWS ” 70. T HE F IRST V ISION 71. S HANTI
 
F OREWORD
Like “Rajani” (perhaps more than), “Sandhya” is a slender rill that has drawn its music from my Bengali which has told upon its English structure. This and many other faults of these poems are due to their unyielding adherence to spontaneity.
“Sandhya” came then, as “Rajani” in its own way through the bed of my Bengali reflecting its sound and sense, and trying to echo back its music that descends on all with the fading twilight.
D HAN G OPAL M UKERJI
N. B. — Since some of these poems were born without, and defy titles, I have refrained from forcing any on them.
 
1
S YMBOLISM
Tongueless the bell!
Lute without a song!
It is not night
It is God’s dawn,
Silence its unending song.
Over heart’s valley,
In the soul’s night,
Through pain’s window
Behold! His light!
On Life’s Height.
No prayer, now,
Though death-waves roll,
Faith’s candle lit,
Beside it sits the soul
Reading Eternity’s scroll.
 
2
S OURCE OF S INGING
A bruised heart,
A wounded soul,
A broken lute,
That is all!
A sad evening,
And a lone star,
Then song reddens—
Sets life’s forest afire!
 
3
With purple shadows the mist measures the infinite sea
That spreads her wave-raiment in lavender, violet, gray, and green;
While with thin silver rays a lone star seeks to sound the deeps.
The breeze-wings tire of flight;
The mist-threads weave a rose-fringed dusky drapery
To cover the bare breasts of the dunes from the moon’s langour-heavy eyes.
The shadows die in purple silence;
Fades the one star from the sky,
As the dark mist puts out the rose-red moon from its deep.
Pale gleams the lighthouse light;
No warring waves break the peace of sleep tonight
Nor a hungry wind shrieks in pain from the lea.
Under her heavy veil of black
A languid sea sluggishly flows
To some far land of forsaken dreams.
 
4
“O, O LD ! O, N EW !” 1
Who are you?
Why make me wait
From the hour of dew
Till another sunset?
Why do I look
For your coming?
Listen to the weeping brook
That might bring
To my lonely shore
A word from you.
Ah, nothing! not a leaf’s tremor!
O, old! O, longed for new!
Who are you? I ask;
Know not why I seek
From day to dusk
Without waking or sleep,—
No sleep! no waking!
A dreaming, a longing;
Not knowing, yet seeking,
For your coming waiting—
O, spring-born!
O, autumn-clad!
O, soul’s new morn!
O, old! O, glad!
So glad, so young!
O, unseen, unknown,