Reading 40, from Madhushaalaa

Once a year [you] celebrate Holi by lighting a fire and

Only once a year [you] celebrate Diwali with fire-crackers and illuminating houses

However, someday [you] should come and see in the "bar"

Every day Holi and every night Diwali, celebrates Madhushaalaa.

Harivansh Rai Bachchan

Madhushaalaa

 

aek baras mein aek baar hi jalti holi ki jwaalaa
aek bar hi lagti baazi, jagti deepon ki maalaa
duniya waalo kintu kisi din, aa madiraalaya mein dekho
din ko holi raat diwali, roze manati MADHUSHAALAA. 

 

My notes:

As an undergraduate student I got introduced to the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam through Edward Fitzgerald’s translation. Much later I came across Mr. Bachchan’s adaptation of the Rubaiyat. The lines become more meaningful when we remember Khayyam was a mathematician to begin with. His dabbling with the nature of infinity is reflected right through the works of Fitzgerald and Bachchan. Moreover when we consider the fact that Bachchan was a PhD in English literature, we have no trouble in understanding his preoccupation with the memento mori theme.

The point here is the juxtaposition of the meaninglessness of life with an inner urge to celebrate this same life to the full…

Holi is a festival of colors celebrating passion and Diwali is the festival of lights, when dark forces are vanquished.

Madhu — nectar, wine, honey dew (See Coleridge’s Kubla Khan)

Shaalaa — bar (where that divine wine is available)

Credits: The translation is by Najid Hussain and you can read more by him here.

Image: Thanks for the beautiful image.

Buy a CD to hear Mr. Bachchan’s son, the legendary Amitabh Bachchan recite his father’s poems.