Kalpurusha: A Longer Poem Poem by Bijay Kant Dubey

Kalpurusha: A Longer Poem
Kalpurusha is one of the longer poems of mine which I have penned from time to time, which I have derived from for pleasure as and when I felt it necessary to relish upon and it is such a topic that enthralls me to my utmost as for the theology involved in, the metaphysics with which it has been written and put before a wider readership for appreciation and analysis if something can be got from. A writer cannot judge it himself the worth of a poem he has written which but the others will say it, the readers will with their remarks to be extended to. There is something of the mythical base as because hosuehold Brahminical myths and reflections I cannot dislodge them all rather than using them in a new way, deliberating and delving upon the common theme of mankind. It is but mortality which engages us, it is but immortality which but engages us and the predicament of man, how to avert it? There are definitely some more poems dealing with the same theme which I shall present in other books of poems.
One in the line of Indian thought and philosophy, trend and tradition, religion and ethics, religion and morality, theology and spirituality, myth and mysticism, Kalpurausha is just an image, archetypal and racial. It is a thought and reflection upon immortality as well as mortality, the mortal history of man, how to peruse it? How to rewrite it? How to present the mythical context of it? Who the Time-keeper, the Iron-man? Who the upholder of time and tense? We do not know, we are clueless with regard to it, but instead of our inquisitive nature we cannot discern it, we go on asking and asking whether it is answered or not, whether we know the answers or not. The eternal drama of life, we cannot script it, though we know it, but instead of it choosing Kalpurusha as the mouthpiece and spokesman of my poetry, as the myth and symbol to be used and applied in imagistically we can take it far for wisdom, counsel, learning and prudence sake. This much in this version of Kalpurusha. The four-line stanza structure has been used in to write the poem and it runs all through with the same length and line.
















Kalpurusha,
What are you,
What are you doing
By the river bank?

Kalpurusha,
Seeing,
Seeing man
Bundle out their dead?

How long,
How long will you,
Will you go
Maarking and seeing?

Kalurusha,
How long,
How long will you
By the riverside?

Sitting under the tree,
Enjoying the cool shade
And marking and marking man
Bundle out their dead?

Kalpurusha,
You are Time,
Time Immortal and Indelible,
You are Time, Time Immortal!

You are Time, Time,
Time Immortal,
Immortal,
You are Time, Time Indelible!

I shall not,
Shall not remain,
I shall not, shall not,
But you will, you will!

You are Time, time,
Immortal time, Immortal Time,
Time, Time,
Indelible Time, indelible!


What it,
It of me,
I am a man,
I am a man?

I am a mortal man,
A mortal man,
I am but a mortal man,
A mortal man.

A mortal man,
A mortal man,
What that,
What that of me?

You are a demi-god,
A god,
A godly persona,
Persona and protagonist.

I am but a man,
A poor man,
A man,
A poor mortal man.

You are a superhuman,
A superhuman being,
A guard,
A guard watching it all.

Kalpurusha, I shall not,
Shall not remain it here,
But you will,
You will remain it here.

As long as the earth is
So long, so long
Will you,
Will you, Kalpurusha!

As long as the earth is,
So long, so.long
Will you,
Will you live it here.



But my coming and going,
My coming and going
Stands it doubtful,
Doubtful, Kalpurusha!

I am today,
Today,
May not,
May not be tomorrow!

You are Kaal, Samay, Prahari,
You are Tense, Time, Guard,
The mortal world
Under your purview of things!

But what,
What that of me,
What, what that of me,
I not of here?

Kalpurusha, sitting by the orchard plot
Close to the hamlet river,
You keep watching,
Watching the drama of life!

How do the people,
Do the people,
Bury, bury their dead,
How, how do they do rituals?

Just by sitting, sitting under the orchard plot,
The orchard plot,
You keep,
Keep seeing the things happen it around!

The broken bamboo and rope cots,
The broken earthen pitchers and bowls,
See I, see I on the burning ghats,
The burning ghats and the peepul tree.

I see, I see the pyres burning,
I see, I see the pyres burning,
The cremation,
The cremation being carried out.



The flames, the flames,
The fire-flames burning,
Burning to ashes,
The flames, fire-flames.

Each a body comes and burns,
Burns it on the dry sands,
Dry white sands of the river-bed
When it diminishes the water level.

The thrown off clothes and bed sheets
I can see, I can
Sometimes ruffled by the wind
As the left-overs.

Kalpurusha, how long,
How long will you,
Will you go watching
Man bundle out their dead?

How long,
How long will you,
Will you go blanketing,
Blanketing the dead?

Kalpurusha, Kalpurusha,
When all will go,
All will go it,
What will you do it here?

Kalpurusha, Kalpurusha,
When all will,
All will go away,
What will you, will you?

The hamlet babbling by,
Babbling,
Babbling and murmuring
Telling the tales of mortal humanity.

Kalpurusha, Kalpurusha,
You are Samay, Samay,
Kaal, Kaal and its Prahari,
Time, Time, Tense, Tense and its Guard!



I shall not, I shall not remain it here,
Here,
But you will, you will,
Kalpurusha!

I shall not, shall not remain,
Remain it here,
But how long, how long,
Will you, will you go bundling the dead?

Kalpurusha, when I shall, I shall see
All, all have gone away,
Gone away,
Who will to you, when will you?

How long, how long will you,
Will you go blanketing,
Blanketing the dead,
How long, how long bundling out the dead?

Kalpurusha, my history,
My history mortal mankind,
Mortal mankind's history,
Mortal mankind's!

The river murmuring, murmuring
And babbling by,
Babbling by
Says it, says it all with a musical murmur.

The skull,
The skull on the sands,
The white sands
Grinning, grinning and telling.

The skull,
The skull on the white sands,
The whote sands,
Telling, telling a tale of life lived and lost.

The skull and skeleton bones,
The skull and skeleton bones,
A litter of rags and things
And left-overs.



When all have, all have,
When all have, all have gone away,
When will you, when will you,
Kalpurusha?