Subtext: Kathmandu Poet In New
York by Susie DeFord
I became familiar
with Yuyutsu RD Sharma’s poetry on his recent long stay in New York to promote
his latest collection Space Cake Amsterdam (Howling Dog Press 2009). Space Cake is a beautifully designed book with artwork by the artist Henry
Avignon.
I became familiar with Yuyutsu RD Sharma’s poetry on his recent
long stay in New York to promote his latest collection Space
Cake Amsterdam (Howling Dog Press 2009). Space
Cake is a beautifully designed book
with artwork by the artist Henry Avignon. In the Beat tradition, the Nepali
poet chronicles his travels through Europe and America. Some of his experiences
are comical—in the title poem “Space Cake Amsterdam” the poet accidentally eats
hash cake in Amsterdam. Some are beautifully imagistic, like “Temple, London,”
where he describes seeing a homeless woman at the top of an escalator as if she
is “a hillside shrine/ that our goddesses/ always prefer to live on.”
Yuyutsu
RD Sharma has published seven previous poetry collections including Annapurna
Poems, (Nirala, New Delhi 2008), Everest
Failures (White Lotus Book Shop,
Kathmandu, 2008) Way
To Everest: A Photographic and Poetic Journey to the Foot of Everest,
(Epsilonmedia, Germany, 2006) with German photographer Andreas Stimm, and a
translation of Irish poet Cathal O’ Searcaigh poetry in Nepali in a bilingual
collection entitled Kathmandu:
Poems, Selected and New, 2006. He is a recipient of fellowships and
grants from The Rockefeller Foundation, Ireland Literature Exchange, Trubar
Foundation, amongst others. His works have appeared in Poetry
Review, Chanrdrabhaga, Sodobnost, Amsterdam
Weekly, and several other magazines. Currently, he edits Pratik,
A Magazine of Contemporary Writing and
contributes literary columns to Nepal’s leading daily, The
Himalayan Times and Newsfront
Weekly. He recently published his first novel and a book of his prose
writing on the ongoing political turbulence in Nepal entitled Annapurnas
and Stains of Blood (Niral
Publications 2009).
Susie DeFord What was your first introduction
to poetry?
Yuyutsu RD Sharma My first introduction to poetry
took place in holy places in India. My father was a devout follower of Naga
ascetics and my grandfather’s place, Nakodar, Punjab, where I grew up, had
great religious flavor. Our family deity was a serpent spirit, Guga Sian, and
my grandpa and I would go to the shrine during the annual festival. On one such
visit, I became possessed by the serpent spirit and started crawling around the
shrine like a serpent. After the incident, everyone in my family started
respecting me as a demigod. But I was going to an English school and felt very
upset about what my friends would think of me. They would think, I feared, that
I am crazy.
I
was also getting acquainted with the Western science and logic and over the
years I carefully suppressed the ecstasy. Only later when I grew up, I learned
how I had ignored a very spiritual awakening in my life and that the experience
was a gift from the gods for me. Only sometimes now the gods visit me and I
feel a rush of that frenzied forgotten wind when I write poetry.
SD American poet David Ray, who you
met while attending the University of Rajasthan, encouraged you to write and
publish your poems. Will you tell us about your relationship with him and how
it’s influenced your work?
YRDS Meeting David Ray was a watershed
in my life. I was aspiring to be an actor before I met him. But meeting him and
working on the special issue of New
Letters with him as his assistant made me
aware of contemporary Indian as well as American poetry.
David
was very humble and kind and unlike other snooty and pedantic professors at the
Department of English and taught me what would later become basics of a Western
Creative Writing course. We would often meet in the evening and wander in the
local streets and university gardens discussing poetry. He introduced me to
William Carlos Willaims, e.e. cummings, Allen Ginsberg, Gary Synder, Robert
Bly, John Ashbury and other American poets’ works.
His
wife poet Judy Ray would often feed me as I had very little money to survive
and my friendship with David made me very special on the campus, to the extent
of annoying many prudent Indian professors who thought it below their high
pedestal to befriend a research scholar in a casual intimate way.
SD Your poems in Space
Cake Amsterdam seem very Western-thinking in
nature and somewhat reminiscent of the Beats. What are some of the similarities
and differences you see in European/ American poetry and Eastern/ Nepali
poetry?
YRDS Well, if you go to India not many
poets know much about American poetry. But almost every poet is familiar with
Whitman and Ginsberg. I recently wrote a column in the Kathmandu Post called
“Chasing Ginsberg.” Ginsberg traveled a lot and made friends all over the
subcontinent and his use of Mantra as one breath unit format for his poetry is
so remarkable. Howl is very well known in the
subcontinent and Beats employed Indian devotional traditions to see deliverance
from grinding sterility of a Western world obsessed with work and material
success.
SD You write a lot of travel poetry.
How did you become so interested in travel? What was the big trip you took?
YRDS Many people think I am a big
traveler. But it’s not true. I started traveling only a decade ago. I loved my
mother so much that I didn’t want to leave her. I always feared something would
happen to her the moment I leave the subcontinent and I won’t be able to come
in time to help her in case of emergency.
But
luck had terrible design in store for me and my mother.
My
mother had a stroke and I stayed by her bed for couple of weeks. The doctors
said it would take some time, maybe few months for her to recuperate. She had
lost her speech and had difficulties in eating. My brother Shakti and I brought
her home and started taking care of her. After a while, I decided to go to New
Delhi for couple of days and take care of some urgent pending business. Two
days after I took a night train and found her on the floor…
The
very thing I feared happened. Since then I have been traveling without any
fears because you get exactly what you fear the most in life.
SD At your book party at Bowery
Poetry recently you talked about having to do a “cleansing ritual” every time
you return from your travels to Kathmandu. Will you tell us a bit more about
this?
YRDS That was just a joke, I meant my
mother would have done it, as she never let me eat any meat and even onions and
garlic never entered her kitchen. If you cross an ocean in the Hindu worldview,
you lose your caste, that’s why the Hindu kings never ever made any expedition
to conquer any world, inviting colonial monsters to ravage innocent populations
for centuries.
SD Your book, The
Way to Everest is a gorgeous poetry and
photography collaboration between you and Andreas Stimm about trekking in
Everest. How did you two meet and decide to collaborate on this project?
YRDS Well, Andreas and I met at
Frankfurt Book Fair. He came with his girlfriend to my stall and asked me to
sign The
Lake Fewa & a Horse and
sought permission to use some of the poems for his photo exhibition in Stuttgart.
Later he asked if he could use the poems in his book on Annapurnas. I had no
idea what the book will be like.
Later
when I was in Heidelberg doing a workshop at South Asian Institute that Andreas
came to my friend Professor Christopher Emmrich’s residence and he showed me
the book.
I
was overwhelmed by his stunningly superb gift. This was so special and I have
never seen a book of poetry like this. Andreas is an amazing photographer and
truly cultured European and works in black and white panoramic format only. Now
we are doing a trilogy on the Himalayas, bringing together Everest, Annapurnas
and Helambu in one big 700 page book that will be first of its kind: a
poetry/picture book on the Himalayas..
SD You edit Pratik magazine and translate poems from
several languages and are very active in the Nepali literary scene. Who are
some Nepali writers you’d like to see get more attention internationally for
their work and why?
YRDS Pratik is a very historic literary
journal. It was published in Nepali by very significant poets for many decades
and later in 1990, I revamped it and started editing it in English. We have
done several special issues and introduced almost all the significant writers
of the Indian subcontinent with a focus on Nepal. We also recently published
special British and Dutch issues with British poet Pascale Petit and Dutch poet
Harry Zevenbergen.
I
know you won’t believe it but it’s true that everyone in Nepal is a poet. Nepal
has vibrant literary scenario and poetry and politics have always remained
inseparable in Nepal. Poets have protested against despotic rulers and helped
in ushering democracy in Nepal. One great Nepali poet I have translated is
Gopal Prasad Rima. He was very much instrumental in bringing down the downfall
of oligarchic Rana regime and later when the democracy came, he was ignored
until his death. I am working on a full length book of his poems.
SD Your bio says you have “completed
his first novel and a book of his prose writing on the ongoing political
turbulence in Nepal entitled, Annapurnas
and Stains of Blood is due
2010. Will you tell us more about these projects?
YRDS Yes, Annapurnas
and Stains of Blood came out
just this year. I got a copy in New York. The book deals with my readings of
the political turmoil as an average citizen or as a poet. I have been
contributing columns to The
Himalayan Times and The
Kathmandu Post for a decade now and the books
also uses some of my best known columns.
I
have also been working on this novel and am looking for a literary agent to
publish it in the West. The novel deals with life of an individual in a failed
nation, and how he comes in terms with his own failures in a nation that’s
constantly reeling under endless cycle of political turbulence. I hope you will
see it soon.
You can find out more about Space Cake Amsterdam at Howling
Dog Press.
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