1.
On the type and design of his poem, Mahapatra writes:
"It
was apparent to me that I was not writing the kind of poems in which meaning
was stated clearly and explicitly, and that this poetry did not have a sharp
focus was that the critic had in mind when he commented on my work. in other
words, this poetry had no flat statements . What I was perhaps trying to do was
to put together images and symbols so that the reader would draw the implicit
connection for himself." (Bombay Literary Review)
2.
Instead of writing in Oriya, mother tongue, he prefers to compose in alien and
foreign language, English because he says:
"I
am in love with English. And then, my schooling was in English---and I learnt
my language from British schoolmaster---mainly from English novels: so blame H.
Riderhaggard and Edgar Rice Burroughs and Ballantyne from whom I caught the
first delight of words gravid with meaning. Further I feel I can express myself
better in English than in Oriya."(Tenor No.1 June 1978, "Inner View:
N. Raghavan talks to Jayanta Mahapatra)
3.
On the theme of his poems, Mahapatra explains:
4.
On the impact of love in his poetry, Mahapatra reveals:
"My
poems were born of love, of love's selfishness and of a huge self-pity, like
the poems of many whom I admire. And it is only of myself I thought as words
took possession of my senses, measured me and linked me with the fabled kingdom
of love." (Youth Times)
5.
About the books 'Close the sky, Ten by Ten' and 'Svayamvara and other poems',
Mahapatra admits:
"My
first two books were mainly experimental; it was the language again I wanted
two exploit, because I felt I would mould it like a clay, and I suppose Adil
Jussawalla was right in his own way when he said in a review that I was a
"poem maker"." (Tenor No.1 June 1978, "Inner View: N.
Raghavan talks to Jayanta Mahapatra)
6.
The use of the word 'door' in his poems has a symbolic interpretation as in the
essay “The Doors" Mahapatra writes:
“The
door served as a refuge from the terrors of the outside world which mutely went
on to lock me in, offering me no escape. It became both a heaven and a prison,
and my mind positioned itself both inside and outside........ There is always
something very final, very secretive about the doors." ("The
Doors," by Mahapatra in Sunday Review of the times of India)
7.
Seeking consciousness in his writing, Mahapatra utters in a lecture at Mysore:
"Governed
as one is, as I am, by the unconscious---which in more ways than one acts like
a power-generator, like a God---I would be satisfied if I can reveal a
consciousness in my writing in agreement with today's realities."
8.
Elucidating the hidden psyche behind writing the poem 'A Rain of rites',
Mahapatra sums up:
"In
a poem I wrote about 15 years ago, titled "A Rain of Rites", I found
myself once again at the border between two separate regions of the mind;
between what, perhaps, I understood and what I didn't, using rain as a symbol
for that substance which makes up my life, those blurs of vague light that
pulsate with the days, making me ask at the end of the poem:
What
still stale air sits on the angel’s wings? What holds my rain so it’s hard to
overcome?
I
suppose such questionings come from somewhere deep within oneself, and that there
is no reason or rationale for these things. But such questions and such
searching move me and I am unable to resist them in my poetry. For poetry is
voice---vaak." (“The Quality of Mystery," Postscript, The Indian
Post, Bombay, Sunday 21 June 1987)
9.
Further describing importance of the word 'rain' in the poem "A Rain of
Rites", Mahapatra in an interview with Ravindra K. Swain says:
"There
are two things which connect human beings: what is above and what is below. The
sky is above you and the earth beneath you and anything that connects earth and
sky is rain. it is a bond you cannot miss. It has a process itself. It is a
link. Therefore, rain is a linking process, and so, the very act of your
living."
10.
Describing significance of the border and the boundary in his poetry, Mahapatra
writes:
"That
one must somehow try to reach the border between things understandable and
ununderstandable in a poem, between life and death, between a straight line and
a circle. Perhaps this paucity of our knowledge about death, about the nowhere
which exists in the mind, about the knowledge of death and of our future and
about this boundary when flesh goes and time enters, holds as unusual power
that drives one to create the flow in a poem." ("The Quality of
Mystery," Postscript, The Indian Post, Bombay, Sunday 21 June 1987)
11.
Mahapatra delineate a sweeper girl in his poem 'Waiting', based on the real
incident and thus highlighting the failure of the government machinery in
curbing the child labour. In another essay titled, "An Orissa
journal," he exposes the context resulting into composing of the poem:
“Round
the bend of the road Lakshmi appears, walking purposefully, the wide-mouthed
excreta bin resting like an infant across her slender left hip. Lakshmi, the
fourteen year old outcaste sweeper girl, barefoot and smiling, cradling the
faces of the upper middle class with her left arm while her right hand swings
in unison with her small, tight, lotus-bud breasts."
12.
Mahapatra has his own interpretation about 'Death', in a conversation with Jan.
Kemp, he replies on the question of "what are you writing about now?”
"I
am writing about death. Not in the way used to, the day of death being an
ending, death giving movement to life, not in that sad, closing way. I want now
to write about death in another way."
13
In another interview Mahapatra foretells imminent of his death and says:
"I
have been working hard somehow feeling that I don't have much time left. The
morbid streak you find in my poetry is also there within me. The idea of death
has always been with me." Indian express 05 Sep 1987)
14.
Equating poetry with death, Mahapatra writes:
"It
has sometimes been said there are two main things poets can write about: love
and death. For in poets dwell Man, this biological being, easily hurt, easily
destroyed. And if one thinks a little on this, one will come to the conclusion
that in reality there is only one subject all poets talk about---and it is
death." (In "poetry: Climate for Renewal," The David H. McAlpin and
Sally Sage McAlpin lecture, A Dhvanyaloka Publication, Mysore, 1985)
15
In his keynote address delivered at the annual conference of Indian association
for Commonwealth literature and Language studies, held at Bhubaneswar,
Mahapatra announces:
“Poetry
makes me write poems with a bad heart. I don't know what that exactly means,
but it is the heart that makes one turn secretly into someone--a leader or
loser perhaps--pushing one to choose values, attitudes, and to do the
not-so-obvious; this heart as it keeps on trying to hide the wounded walls of
its house, and at the same time asking itself for a meaning to our lives."
("Silence to Poetry: piercing the Rock," Haritham, Kottayam, 08 Jan
1997)
16.
Mahapatra started writing poetry at an age when people stop writing poetry. He
was forty then. He himself confesses:
“My
poetry came at an age when most poets would have been basking in the warm glow
of success.”
(Contemporary
Authors – Autobiography Series (volume9, 1989) edited by: Mark Zadrozny.
Published by: Gale Research Company, Book Tower, Detroit, Michigan 48226 )
17.
Mahapatra is the poet who commands respect and recognition more overseas than
at home. In an interview with Sumanyu Satpathy, he expresses his predicament
thus:
“I
got more encouragement from academics outside my country than inside because I
was not writing the type of poetry that appeared in Bombay." (Many Indias,
Many Literature. Edited by Shormishtha Panja, Worldview Publication)
18.
On the role and knowledge of physics in shaping and moulding his poetry,
Mahapatra posits his views in an interview to ‘The Hindu’:
“Physics
taught me that time held you captive, but it also made you free. I was nothing
but an infinitesimal speck floating in the vast universe. This broadened my
vision, but I also feel pressurized, burdened by the weight of time."
(Poetry as an Anchor: Jayanta Mahapatra, Sunday, 02 Oct 05)
19.
"Mahapatra establishes three plausible relations between a poem and a
reader by applying 'Electrostatic Theory of Physics’. A poem is essentially an
experience and this might
(a)
Reach the reader almost immediately, spontaneously--in the manner of electric
charge passing through a good conductor such as copper or iron;
(b)
Reach the reader with difficulty, slowly, under great stress, like that of
charge passing through a bad conductor like glass; or
(c)
Not be able to pass or communicate at all, as though there was a break or gap
between them....
The
capacity or power for conducting the essential experience of the poet will primarily
depend upon the poem itself---on the poem's design."
It
is his knowledge of Physics that enables him to explain the relation between a
poem and the reader in splendid way. And can we predict promulgation of such
principle from a pure literary pundit?”
20.
On the lack of humour in his poetry he has got his own reason and defence. In a
conversation with Sudeep Ghosh, he reveals:
“Oh
well, may be I was made that way. It is difficult for me to be humourous in the
poems I write. There is so much despair in the world around me – so much hate,
so much injustice, so much poverty. And religious fanaticism, for no reason. I
wish I could write a humourous poem. I haven’t.”
(Muse
India, Literary Journal)
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