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BACH’S CONCERTO NO. 1 IN C MINOR

October 25, 2010 By: PGR NAIR Category: Poetry


BACH’S CONCERTO NO. 1 IN C MINOR

 




It was a leisurely dinner evening in a Greek restaurant in Toronto. There were only three of us- my friend, Dr. Roger Greenwald, poet and distinguished translator of Norwegian poetry, and my wife Raji. We reached the restaurant after visiting the Toronto public library near our residence to pick up a book I had reserved- ‘The Selected poems of Nazim Hikmet’ translated by Randy Blasing and his Turkish wife Mutlu Konuk. I had read  poems of Hikmet in the late eighties and the only poetry book of Hikmet I had owned is now the permanent property of my friend after loaning it to him. He still says he will return:). So, it was a pleasure to read a new translation of him after  many years.

As we settled down in the restaurant, I showed Roger the book I had picked up. He instantly recognized it and asked me whether I had read the poem, ‘Bach’s Concerto No. 1 in C Minor’. As I am a huge fan of the baroque music of Bach, it was the first poem I picked up to read while I went through the book sitting in the subway. With rapturous joy I yelled-Repetition!!!. Roger laughed hearing my euphoric exclamation and endorsed it as one of the most beautiful poems of Nazim Hikmet.

I have posted below this poem to add to my perennial joy of sharing beautiful poems with my friends here.


Nazim Hikmet was one the greatest poets of modern Turkey. Hikmet revolutionized Turkish poetry by introducing free verse and modern poetic techniques, and combining these with traditional and folk styles. He was also jailed and eventually exiled for his leftist political beliefs and his work for social justice. I love Hikmet’s fresh imagery and spirited tone. He is comparable to Pablo Neruda in his style and humanistic vision which can be summarized in the following two lines that appear in one of his poems.

“To live like tree, unique and free

Like a forest in harmony”

Incidentally, both were friends and shared the same ideology and no wonder they became endearing poets of humanity.

Nazim Hikmet is a poet of great compassion and courage, and a believer in the human race in spite of having been in jail for many years. His poems are intimate, honest, uncompromising, gently humorous, filled with longing and hope and refusing to let despair triumph in spite of outward circumstances.

This poem is a simple one and he speaks, probably to his lover Rose, about the innumerable repetitions that one sees in nature. They are verily joy dancing in nature and without those voiceless, clueless and  endless repetitions, our life is monochrome. As the poet affirms at the end, the key is, ‘to repeat without repeating’.

 

BACH’S CONCERTO NO. 1 IN C MINOR

Fall morning in the vineyard:
      in row after row the repetition of knotty vines,
                      of clusters on the vines,
                      of grapes in the clusters,
                      of light on the grapes.

At night, in the big white house,
                       the repetition of windows,
                       each lit up separately.

The repetition of all the rain that rains
                      on earth, trees, and the sea,
                      on my hands, face, and eyes,
                      and of the drops crushed on the glass.

The repetition of my days
                      that are alike,
                      my days that are not alike.

The repetition of the thread in the weave,
                      the repetition in the starry sky,
                      and the repetition of “I love” in all languages,
                      and the repetition of the tree in the leaves,
                      and of the pain of living, which ends in an instant
                                                          on every deathbed.

The repetition in the snow -
                       the light snow,
                       the heavy wet snow,
                       the dry snow,
the repetition in the snow that whirls
in the blizzard that drives me off the road.

The children are running in the courtyard;
in the courtyard the children are running.
An old woman is passing by on the street;
on the street an old woman is passing by;
passing by on the street is an old woman.

At night, in the big white house,
                     the repetition of windows,
                     each lit up separately.

In the clusters, of grapes,
on the grapes, of light.

To walk toward the good, the just, the true,
to fight for the good, the just, the true,
to seize the good, the just, the true.

Your silent tears and smile, my rose,
your sobs and bursts of laughter, my rose,
the repetition of your shining white teeth when you laugh.

Fall morning in the vineyard:
       in row after row the repetition of knotty vines,
                     of clusters on the vines,
                     of grapes in the clusters,
                     of light on the grapes,
                     of my heart in the light.

My rose, this is the miracle of repetition -
to repeat without repeating.

 

 (PS: I have strived to maintain the syntax as given in the book.)

 

Ref: Poems of Nazim Hikmet, Revised and Expanded Edition [Paperback] Nazim Hikmet (Author), Randy Blasing (Translator), Mutlu Konuk Blasing (Translator), Mutlu Konuk (Foreword)

 

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