इकरस आकाशातून पंख वितळून खाली पडून बुडला...तरीहि येतो वास फुलांना...Mardhekar and Auden's Musee des Beaux Arts

#WHAuden  #बासीमर्ढेकर #LandscapewiththeFallofIcarus

 

Anton Chekhov, The Bishop, 1902 (translated by Rosamund Bartlett, 2004): “....Three doctors arrived and consulted with each other and then they went away. The day was long, unbelievably long, and then night fell and it went on and on, but towards morning on the Saturday the lay brother went over to the old lady, who was lying on the couch in the sitting room, and asked her to go into the bedroom; the bishop had passed away.

The next day it was Easter. There were forty-two churches and six monasteries and convents in the city, and the booming, joyous sound of bell-ringing hung over it from dawn to dusk without a break, stirring up the spring air; birds sang and the sun shone brightly. It was noisy in the main marketplace; there were swings going up and down, barrel organs playing, an accordion wheezing away, and drunken voices calling out. And then pony-rides began on the main street in the afternoon—it was all great fun, in a word; everything went well, just as it had the previous year, and as it probably would the following one.

A month later they appointed a new bishop, and no one remembered Bishop Pyotr any more. And then they completely forgot about him....”

जी ए कुलकर्णी: "... कोणीदेखील तुझ्याकरिता खंगणार नाही. थोडे दिवस शोधाशोध होईल. कदाचित वर्तमानपत्रात जाहिरात येईल, पण माझे एक. आठवड्याच्या आत सगळ्यांच्या भुका ताज्यातवान्या होतील.... तू काय, मी काय, किंवा एखादा सम्राट काय, आम्ही जागा खाली केली की ती रिती न राहता  दुसऱ्या एका बुडबुड्याने लगेच भरून जाते..." (पृष्ठ ३३, 'स्वामी', 'पिंगळावेळ', १९७७)

 

W. H. Auden:

"

Musee des Beaux Arts

About suffering they were never wrong,

The Old Masters : how well they understood

Its human position ; how it takes place

While someone else is eating or opening a window or just

                                                                      walking dully along;

How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting

For the miraculous birth, there always must be

Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating

On a pond at the edge of the wood :

They never forgot

That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course

Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot

Where the dogs go on with their doggy

                                                        life and the torturer's horse

Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.

In Brueghel's Icarus, for instance : how everything turns away

Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may

Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,

But for him it was not an important failure ; the sun shone

As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green

Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen

Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,

Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on."

                                                                                 December 1938

बा सी मर्ढेकर:

"अजून येतो वास फुलांना,

अजून माती लाल चमकते;

खुरट्या बुंध्यावरी चढून

अजून बकरी पाला खाते.

अस्मानावर भगवा रंग

आणि नागवें समोर पोर;

अजून डुलक्या घेत मोजतें

ह्या दोहोंतील अंतर ढोर.

भूकंपाचा इकडे धक्का

पलीकडे अन् युद्ध-नगारे;

         चहूंकडे अन् एकच गिल्ला,

         जुन्या शवांवर नवे निखारे.

फत्तरांतला देव पाहतो

कुठे जहाली माझी फत्ते;

        माणूस म्हणतो चिरंतनाचे

        मनांत माझ्या अस्सल कित्ते.

चढेल तुसडी तेढीं नातीं,

नश्वरतेंतहि चिरका नखरा;

          शिजत्या मांसामधून कोणी

          स्वर्ग हुंगतो बुलंद बहिरा.

सटीक मानवतेची टिपणी

पुन्हा वाचली अर्थ तोच तरि;

         आभाळाच्या पल्याड स्पंदन

         टिपरी त्याची ह्या मडक्यांवरि.

जगून थोडें अखेर मरणें

उघडझांप ही डोळ्यांचीच;

         अंधारांतुन राडाराचा

         किरण चालला सलत पुढेंच .

कार्तिकांतले गव्हाळ ऊन

जरी मनाची अशा रितीनें

          फाडुनि बघतें ढिली कातडी

          जखम आंतली जुन्या भितीनें;

तरीहि येतो वास फुलांना,

तरीहि माती लाल चमकते;

खुरट्या बुंध्यावरी चढून

तरीहि बकरी पाला खाते;

अस्मानावर भगवा रंग

आणि नागवें समोर पोर;

तरीहि डुलक्या घेत मोजतें

ह्या दोहोंतिल अंतर ढोर!

---"अहो बत महद्भाग्यं  द्रष्टुं व्यवसिता वयम्"---"

(३२, पृष्ठ १०२-१०३, 'मर्ढेकरांची कविता', १९५९/१९६९/१९७७, प्रथम प्रसिद्धी: सत्यकथा , फेब्रुवारी १९५१)

मर्ढेकरांच्या ह्या कवितेवर म वा धोंडांनी १६ पानी लेख लिहला आहे: "अजून येतो वास फुलांना" (पुस्तक: 'तरीहि येतो वास फुलांना', १९९९, पृष्ठ १५०-१६५)

त्या लेखात ऑडेन यांच्या वरील १९३८साली प्रसिद्ध झालेल्या कवितेचा कुठेही उल्लेख नाही (तो उल्लेख बहुदा विजया राजाध्यक्ष यांच्या लेखनात सुद्धा नसावा नाहीतर धोंडांनी तो केला असता, किमान खोडून काढण्यासाठी!). 

रॉबर्ट ब्राउनिंग (Robert Browning) यांच्या १८४१च्या 'Pippa Passes' चा उल्लेख आहे, मर्ढेकरांच्या एका इंग्लिश कवितेचा पण उल्लेख आहे. 

पण माझ्या मते मर्ढेकरांच्या कवितेचा जो गाभा आहे : "...

तरीहि येतो वास फुलांना,

तरीहि माती लाल चमकते;

खुरट्या बुंध्यावरी चढून

तरीहि बकरी पाला खाते;...." तो ऑडेन यांच्या कवितेवर आधारित आहे अस मला वाटत: "... the sun shone

As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green

Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen

Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,

Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on....."!

कसे ते पहा.... 

In Greek mythology, Icarus succeeded in flying, with wings made by his father Daedalus, using feathers secured with bees wax. Ignoring his father's warnings, Icarus chose to fly too close to the sun, melting the wax, and fell into the sea and drowned. His legs can be seen in the water just below the ship. (विकिपीडिया)

म्हणजे तो इकरस आकाशातून वितळून खाली पडला आणि बुडाला तरी the sun shone As it had to आणि  ship that must have seen

Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,

Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on

 ऑडेनना ही कविता स्फुरली खालील पेंटिंग पाहून... पहा सुर्योदय झालेला आहे, शेतकरी नांगरतोय, जहाज शांतपणे सफर करतय आणि इकडे इकरस पाय वरती करून बुडतोय....

Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, c 1558

Artist: (perhaps) Pieter Brueghel the Elder 1525/1530- 1569

Location :Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium

मर्ढेकरांनी इकरसच्या भयानक शेवटा ऐवजी कोरियन युद्ध, आसाम मधील भूकंप आणि अनेक प्रतिमा वापरल्या आहेत, इतर विचार मंथन पण केल आहे, पण त्याचा निष्कर्ष एकच आहे: "we seek comfort where we can, even amid calamity".... किंवा चेकॉव्ह यांच्या गोष्टी प्रमाणे : "it was all great fun, in a word; everything went well, just as it had the previous year, and as it probably would the following one"....तरीहि येतो वास फुलांना....