Yuyutsu Sharma

Yuyutsu Sharma Poems

Yuyutsu Sharma Biography

Yuyutsu Ram Dass Sharma (also known as Yuyutsu RD Sharma or Yuyutsu Sharma) is a widely traveled Nepali/Indian writer who has read his works at several prestigious places in the world. He moved to Nepal at an early age and now writes in English and Nepali. Half the year, he travels and reads all over the world to read from his works and conducts creative writing workshop at various universities in the United States and Europe but goes trekking in the Himalayas when back home. Early Life and Education Yuyutsu RD Sharma was born (5 January 1960) at Nakodar, Punjab and grew up in Nakodar and later at Nangal Township of Shivalik ranges of Mahabharata Hills where his father worked. Sharma was educated at Nakodar under the supervision of his maternal grandfather, Dheru Ram and grew up in a very religious atmosphere with his mother, Shanti Devi and at the age of nine became a shaman as he was thought to be possessed by a serpent spirit, his family deity. He came under the impression of Naga ascetics whom his father, Madan Lal revered, but later followed the course of western education and received his early education first DAV college, Nakodar, Punjab, and then Baring Union Christan College, Batala, where he received his Master's Degree in English Literature. Later he received his M. Phil. at the University of Rajasthan where he met American poet David Ray who encouraged him to write and publish poetry. Yuyutsu remained active in the literary circles of Rajasthan and acted in plays by Shakespeare, Bertolt Brecht, Harold Pinter, and Edward Albee. Later he taught at various campuses of Punjab University, Chandigarh and Tribhuwan University, Kathmandu. Literary Life and Acknowledgement Recipient of fellowships and grants from The Rockefeller Foundation, Ireland Literature Exchange, Trubar Foundation, Slovenia, The Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature and The Foundation for the Production and Translation of Dutch Literature, Yuyutsu RD Sharma is a distinguished poet and translator. A widely traveled author, he has read his works at several prestigious places including Poetry Café, London, Seamus Heaney Center for Poetry, Belfast, New York University, New York, Western Writers' Center, Galway, Bowery Poetry Place, New York, The Kring, Amsterdam, P.E.N. Paris, Knox College, Illinois, Whittier College, California, Baruch College, New York, WB Yeats' Center, Sligo, Gustav Stressemann Institute, Bonn, Rubin Museum, New York, Irish Writers’ Centre, Dublin, The Guardian Newsroom, London, Trois Rivieres Poetry Festival, Quebec, Arnofini, Bristol, Borders, London, Slovenian Book Days, Ljubljana, Royal Society of Dramatic Arts, London, Gunter Grass House, Bremen, GTZ, Kathmandu, Ruigoord, Amsterdam, Nehru Center, London, Frankfurt Book Fair, Frankfurt, Indian International Center, New Delhi, and Villa Serbelloni, Italy. Publications He has published eight poetry collections including, Space Cake, Amsterdam, & Other Poems from Europe and America, (Howling Dog Press, Colorado, 2009), Annapurna Poems, (Nirala, New Delhi 2008), Everest Failures (White Lotus Book Shop, Kathmandu, 2008), www.WayToEverest.de: 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 has translated and edited several anthologies of contemporary Nepali poetry in English and along with Shailendra Sakar launched a literary movement, Kathyakayakalp ("content metamorphosis"), in Nepali poetry. A collection of his poems in Slovenian translation, entitled, Jezero Fewa in Konj come out from the Sodobnost International Press, Ljubljana. A collection of his poems in French, entitled Poemes de l’ Himalayas appeared from Harmattan, Paris in 2009. Quite recently, Cosmopoetica, Cordoba, published Yuyutsu's Poemas De Los Himalayas: Bilingual Spanish/English Poetry Collection, translated into Spanish with an Introduction by Spanish poet, Veronica Aranda. Yuyutsu’s own work has been translated into German, French, Italian, Slovenian, Hebrew, Spanish and Dutch. Currently, he edits Pratik, A Magazine of Contemporary Writing and contributes literary columns to Nepal’s leading daily, The Himalayan Times.)

The Best Poem Of Yuyutsu Sharma

Space Cake, Amsterdam

"Don't panic," they said,
remain cool like your Krishna,
meditate maybe like Buddha,
uttering ‘Om Mani Padme,' jewel in the lotus,
or lie down and relax
like Vishnu on the python-bed
to float on the ocean's currents,
buoyant on the invisible thread
of your breath in slow motion…

Millions of cats prowled around me.
Smoke from shared sex
and hashish joints stung my eyes.
Unsettling tongue
of an awkward fire fed my stomach.
I skidded queasily towards
towards the formidable edge,
unknown ominous frontiers of human life…

They laughed a secret laugh
behind my back - "Isn't it crazy that
this man from Kathmandu should get stoned
from a piece of space cake in Amsterdam?"

"Don't be serious, laugh,
celebrate the flame of life!" a woman's voice said.
"Hold my hand; I can imagine
you are alone on this trail.
I'v been there once," she whispered.
Her tongue curled like a dry leaf in my ear
and crackled "How much did you take,
just a piece? I took thirty-eight grams once,
It can be crazy if you don't know it's coming.
Just don't worry too much.
Don't lose your control over things.
You can kiss me if you like,
You can pat my back,
tickle my belly or stroke my breasts
for a while, if it comforts you.
Sometimes it can be heavenly,
this licking the rim of the forbidden frontiers of human life.

"That's what he wants, that's exactly
what he's looking for," a voice leered far off.
"But I have to go ultimately,
I've a man waiting at home for me."

"Maybe read a poem of yours,"
someone said. My heart raced wild
and I heard some-girls gossip in the next room—
What if he gets sick in Europe?
Don't we get sick in Asia?
"Just take it easy," another voice echoed
"You won't go psychotic. Remember one thing,
whatever happens, you can always make a comeback."
Faces of my dear ones veered past my face.
I felt delicate thread of my life
slipping through my fingers
"Hey man, it's fine. Don't worry too much."
My host shouted. "Drink lots of water."
Drink black tea or coffee," a guest suggested.
"Or take lots of orange juice."
"Maybe sing your favorite song," a woman said.
"Or recite one of your Hindu mantras."
"Maybe stick your finger into your throat"
another voice came sheepishly, "And throw up.
You probably haven't digested everything yet."

Questions came like wind slaps.
"Can you tell me what they call boredom
in your mother tongue? Do you remember
your email account and password?
Discuss your children, if you have any.
Shall I bring my little daughter before you?
Maybe you'd feel better then,
seeing her brilliant eyes."

I imagined a child's face and clung to it,
like a penitent would hold onto
a sacred cow's tail in his afterlife,
and slept on it, all through the river of blood…

Hours passed by
and then I heard someone say—
What if he had freaked out?
What if Death had stalked our house tonight?

Hearing these words, I woke up
knowing I'd come back, stepped on
the familiar shores of life
where Death's feared, a distant distrustful thing.
My drowse burst like a glacial that cracks
from rumble of a seed of fire
that explodes somewhere in earth's deep sleep.

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