वि स खांडेकर, ऑस्कर वाइल्ड , ला सालोमी आणि दुर्गा भागवत...Yayati of Khandekar Is Inspired By Oscar Wilde’s play Salome

SALOMÉ: “…All other men were hateful to me. But thou wert beautiful! Thy body was a column of ivory set upon feet of silver. It was a garden full of doves and lilies of silver. It was a tower of silver decked with shields of ivory. There was nothing in the world so white as thy body. There was nothing in the world so black as thy hair. In the whole world there was nothing so red as thy mouth. Thy voice was a censer that scattered strange perfumes, and when I looked on thee I heard a strange music. Ah! wherefore didst thou not look at me, Iokanaan? With the cloak of thine hands, and with the cloak of thy blasphemies thou didst hide thy face. Thou didst put upon thine eyes the covering of him who would see his God. Well, thou hast seen thy God, Iokanaan, but me, me, thou didst never see. If thou hadst seen me thou hadst loved me. I saw thee, and I loved thee. Oh, how I loved thee! I love thee yet, Iokanaan. I love only thee . . . . I am athirst for thy beauty; I am hungry for thy body; and neither wine nor apples can appease my desire. What shall I do now, Iokanaan? Neither the floods nor the great waters can quench my passion. I was a princess, and thou didst scorn me. I was a virgin, and thou didst take my virginity from me. I was chaste, and thou didst fill my veins with fire . . . . Ah! ah! wherefore didst thou not look at me? If thou hadst looked at me thou hadst loved me. Well I know that thou wouldst have loved me, and the mystery of Love is greater than the mystery of Death….”  (Oscar Wilde, 'Salome', 1891)

 कलाकार : कै दीनानाथ दलाल  (https://www.facebook.com/artistdinanathdalal)

वि स खांडेकर यांची  ज्ञानपीठ पुरस्कृत (१९७४) कादंबरी 'ययाति', १९५९ ही कादंबरी दुर्गाबाई भागवतांना आवडली नाही (मला सुद्धा ती कधीच जरासुद्धा १९७०-८० च्या दशकांत आवडली नाही.)... त्यांच्या परिक्षणाचा थोडा भाग सोबत पहा:

  ( पृष्ठ १७४, 'भावसंचित', २०१५, मूळ लेख 'अबकडइ', १९८४)

(अनेक गाजलेल्या मराठी कलाकृतींना पाश्चिमात्य देशांतील कलाकृतींमुळे प्रेरणा मिळाली आहे - उदा:राम गणेश गडकरी यांचे 'एकच प्याला' हे 'ऑथेल्लो' वरून सुचले असे प्रल्हाद केशव अत्रे त्यांच्या 'संपूर्ण गडकरी'च्या प्रदीर्घ प्रस्तावनेत पृष्ठ ४८ वर लिहतात, वि वा शिरवाडकरांचे 'नटसम्राट' 'किंग लिअर' च्या बळकट पायावर उभे आहे. वसंत कानेटकरांचे 'बेइमान' हे Jean Anouilh ह्यांच्या बेकेट, १९५९ वर आधारित आहे. 

दुर्गाबाई म्हणतात: "...व्हिक्टर ह्युगोचंच एक नाटक आहे 'लुई दि फोर्टिन्थ' म्हणून. या नाटकातील फ्रान्सचा हा राजा अत्यंत बदफ़ैली. तेव्हाच्या पद्धतीनुसार त्याच्या दरबारात एक विदुषक होता. त्याला एक मुलगी होती. अतिशय सुन्दऱ्र. ती लुई राजाच्या नजरेस पडू नये म्हणून तो सतत खबरदारी घ्यायचा. पण एकदा लुई तिला बघतो आणि तिच्यावर बलात्कार करतो. हे कथानक तेंडुलकरांच्या 'घाशीराम कोतवाल' या नाटकाच मूळ. १४ वा  लुई आणि त्याच्या विदुषकाऐवजी नाना फडणीस आणि घाशीराम वर त्यांनी नाटक रचलं...", पृष्ठ १३६, ऐसपैस गप्पा: दुर्गाबाईंशी, १९९८. अर्थात ह्युगो यांनी 'लुई दि फोर्टिन्थ' हे नाटक लिहले नसून Le roi s'amuse, १८३२ नावाचे नाटक लिहले आहे. दुर्गाबाईंना  ते नाटक म्हणायचे असणार. त्यात लुई  नसून फ्रान्सिस आहे...)

वाईल्डच्या 'ला सालोमी' साठी Aubrey Beardsley (August 21, 1872–March 16, 1898) यांनी अति  उत्कृष्ट चित्रे काढली आहेत. 

Maria Popova: “…And yet Beardsley’s images are very much a sacrificial offering to tension, to the contradictory forces by which the human heart is pulled asunder — loneliness and longing, dread and desire, sadness and sensual delight. His stark black-and-white aesthetic — like his life, like all life — is one of violent and vitalizing contrasts, nowhere more so than in his drawings for Oscar Wilde’s play Salome…”

 "... In February of 1893, a British magazine commissioned Beardsley to create a single drawing based on the original French publication of Salomé. But the gorgeously grotesque piece he submitted — Salomé reveling in the severed head of John the Baptist — was too daring and the magazine rejected it. In April, a new art publication included the drawing in its inaugural issue and it made its way to Wilde, who was so taken with it that he offered Beardsley a contract for ten full-page illustrations and a cover design for the English edition. Beardsley was twenty-one and Wilde, whom he had met three years earlier at an artist’s studio, thirty-eight.."