Moment in Eternity
समीक्षा
Moment in Eternity
- Gaurab Raj Thapaliya
A moment in eternity is a recently published collection of 'brief poems' by locally renowned poet Tulsi Thapa from Hetauda. It contains hundred poems in both Nepali and English. Structurally, Thapa has composed his poems on Japanese haiku but are completely restricted in haikus syllabic constraints. However, each poem has two lines followed by a witty and exploding concluding one. As the name of his book suggests, his poems open an eternal space with numerous thoughts provoking expressions for the modern reader.
He starts his poetic journey with a poem titled "The Beginning" creating an absurd situation, he writes;
We have reins, no horses
And now begins
A wonderful journey.
People, in the modern world, are unwillingly rooted in such absurdity where they are 'compelled to do' without any clear objective and destination. A famous philosopher Sartre says " … to exist is to create your own life because we have to create meaning for ourselves." Mainly his poems titled 'Somewhere', 'Aged', 'Misplaced', 'Festivity', 'Identity', 'Identification', 'The Mind', The Murder', 'Revenge', 'Loneliness', 'Presence' and 'similar other poems focus their subject on the angst, boredom, alienation, meaninglessness, that prevails the modern people. Somewhere Thapa's poems seem to be centered on the condition of modern people. In his poem 'Identity', he writes;
Born it was me
Now he who is living
It's not me and not me.
Another dominant factor in life of contemporary modern world is that they always find themselves very 'confusing'. Thapa describes the man as; "For non living thing, it's a living being, and for themselves always confusing." The poem titled 'Imprisonment' is a very vivid and convincing to state the pitiable condition of human being, he says;
What I did to free myself
Before I know it
I'd made a jail.
The speaker in the poem finds himself imprisoned inside a jail that himself has created in the course of freeing himself. The poet expresses his anger and wants to revolt against the history and demands;
Where are those pieces of glasses?
You committed suicide with
Oh Bhimsen! I will make a missile of them.
His last poem 'The last Scene' very much touching and presents a kind of irony against the aimless journey. Reinterpreting the Mahabharata, he concludes his collection and says;
Sanjaya, Tell me what is visible
Oh! King, What I see
Are all invisible.
Mixing philosophical questions with poetic feeling Tulsi Thapa has woven threads of history, religion, myth and even politics to make his idea convincing. All the poems in this collection can be found beautifully crafted, simple and delicate enough to express his evocation of modern time. Some of his poems often signify the individual loss of identity and emptiness in the life living through the difficult time. Besides, his poems bear sharp irony, humor and reappraisal of life, living in this inhospitable world.
To sum up, this collection is Tulsi Thapa's first literary collection in a form of book but he has tried his best to present himself as a 'maker of vision' by transforming his lifelong experiences into an literary art. For reader 'A moment in an eternity' provides very precious moments with superb thought to stimulate the reader with eternal probability of meaning strongly related the experience of modern people.
A moment in eternity is a recently published collection of 'brief poems' by locally renowned poet Tulsi Thapa from Hetauda. It contains hundred poems in both Nepali and English. Structurally, Thapa has composed his poems on Japanese haiku but are completely restricted in haikus syllabic constraints. However, each poem has two lines followed by a witty and exploding concluding one. As the name of his book suggests, his poems open an eternal space with numerous thoughts provoking expressions for the modern reader.
He starts his poetic journey with a poem titled "The Beginning" creating an absurd situation, he writes;
We have reins, no horses
And now begins
A wonderful journey.
People, in the modern world, are unwillingly rooted in such absurdity where they are 'compelled to do' without any clear objective and destination. A famous philosopher Sartre says " … to exist is to create your own life because we have to create meaning for ourselves." Mainly his poems titled 'Somewhere', 'Aged', 'Misplaced', 'Festivity', 'Identity', 'Identification', 'The Mind', The Murder', 'Revenge', 'Loneliness', 'Presence' and 'similar other poems focus their subject on the angst, boredom, alienation, meaninglessness, that prevails the modern people. Somewhere Thapa's poems seem to be centered on the condition of modern people. In his poem 'Identity', he writes;
Born it was me
Now he who is living
It's not me and not me.
Another dominant factor in life of contemporary modern world is that they always find themselves very 'confusing'. Thapa describes the man as; "For non living thing, it's a living being, and for themselves always confusing." The poem titled 'Imprisonment' is a very vivid and convincing to state the pitiable condition of human being, he says;
What I did to free myself
Before I know it
I'd made a jail.
The speaker in the poem finds himself imprisoned inside a jail that himself has created in the course of freeing himself. The poet expresses his anger and wants to revolt against the history and demands;
Where are those pieces of glasses?
You committed suicide with
Oh Bhimsen! I will make a missile of them.
His last poem 'The last Scene' very much touching and presents a kind of irony against the aimless journey. Reinterpreting the Mahabharata, he concludes his collection and says;
Sanjaya, Tell me what is visible
Oh! King, What I see
Are all invisible.
Mixing philosophical questions with poetic feeling Tulsi Thapa has woven threads of history, religion, myth and even politics to make his idea convincing. All the poems in this collection can be found beautifully crafted, simple and delicate enough to express his evocation of modern time. Some of his poems often signify the individual loss of identity and emptiness in the life living through the difficult time. Besides, his poems bear sharp irony, humor and reappraisal of life, living in this inhospitable world.
To sum up, this collection is Tulsi Thapa's first literary collection in a form of book but he has tried his best to present himself as a 'maker of vision' by transforming his lifelong experiences into an literary art. For reader 'A moment in an eternity' provides very precious moments with superb thought to stimulate the reader with eternal probability of meaning strongly related the experience of modern people.