Manokamana – Poetry on Film Series #4
Title: Report, Length: 45 seconds
Language: Nepali, Subtitles: English, Nepali
I don’t remember exactly when I wrote this short poem. “Report” is about the relationship we have as poets and artists with the country we choose to take refuge in, build a home, serve. It’s about the desire to see peace and prosperity flourish in the lands we traverse, be it our own or foreign. It’s about the collective failure of a people, a nation, which has become a Salusa Secundus of the modern world.
Literary references in the poem:
Bala Krishna Sama was a famous Nepali dramatist, regarded as the Shakespeare of the literature in the Khas Nepali language. This poem refers to one of his famous poems in which he expresses the desire to be reborn in the country.
Laxmi Prasad Devkota was a Nepali poet, playwright, and novelist. Regarded as the greatest poet in the history of Nepal and Nepali language, Devkota described his country as a beautiful, peaceful and “vast” nation in “Is Nepal Small?”—probably his most famous essay defending Nepal’s size on the world’s political map.
Postscript:
Somebody asked me why I am wasting my time with a language only a few people speak, especially when those who speak it don’t want me to speak it. And I said please let me get these out of my system. Let me return to my themes and origins as a writer, poet, filmmaker. It’s an ordeal I must to go through before I can create new work.
मेरे प्रभु! मुझे इतनी ऊँचाई कभी मत देना,
गैरों को गले न लगा सकूँ,
इतनी रुखाई कभी मत देना।
– अटल बिहारी वाजपेयी
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