उलट्याच छापून यायला लागल्यात ओळी
म्हणजे नेमकं काय होतंय
याचा अदमास येत नाहीये अजून मास्तर
उलटंच छापल्या जातंय हे नक्की
म्हणजे गेली चाळीस वर्षं
गुमान सुरूय मशीन
अधनं मधनं पट्टा बिट्टा तुटला
फार्फार तर
एखाद दोन पार्ट झाला बद्दिमाग
त काढून टाकला आपण इमानंइतबारीनं
टाईम टू टाईम ऑईल पाणी चेक करायची
तशी सवयच नव्हती लावली
तरी गुमान पळायचं पण छापायचं
मधली काही वर्षं
आवाज व्हायचा जास्तीचा
तर त्याची सवयच झाल्ती कानाला
शाई कमी धरायची प्लेट
नि कधी स्कम ही यायचा डोळा चुकवून
तरी छापायचं बिनबोभाट
नि हे आत्ताच काय झालं मास्तर
की उलटंच उमटायला लागलं सगळं
थेट प्लेट उलटी लावून पाह्यली
तरी उलटंच यायचं छापून
नि सरळ ठेवली तरीही तेच
सर्विसिंग ऑयलिंग काय काय असलं ते
पाह्यलं करून पण येतच नाही अदमास
मशीन पळतं फास्ट स्पीडही तग धरूनेय अजून
कागदही राहतात शाबूत इतक्या वेगात
पण अक्षरंही उलटीच उमटू लागली आहेत
छापखाना बंद करणं
हा एकमेव इलाजही
फोल ठरलाय मास्तर
हा मशीन चा धडाड तर वाजतच राहतो दिनरात कानात
नि अक्षरही उमटंतच राहतात उल्टी
चष्म्याच्या काचाआड
घरं बदली गावं बदली माणसं बदलली
या उलट्या अक्षरांपायी
तरी सुकून कुठाय मास्तर?
नि आज तर हाईटच झाली मास्तर
सकाळचं वर्तमानपत्र उघडलं
तर तेही उलटंच छापलेलं
आत्महत्या
आत्महत्या हा शब्द कुणीही लिहू शकतो
म्हणजे ज्याला गिरवता येते पहिले अक्षर
किंवा निरक्षर साक्षात ठसा अंगठ्याचा
म्हणजे कवी असेल पेंटर नट डोंबारी
तर लिहितोच लिहितो कैफात वळणदार
म्हणजे नर असेल किंवा मादा किंवा तृतीयपंथी सुद्धा
म्हणजे कुणीही लिहू शकतो
या पृथ्वीतलावर जन्माला आलेला
द्विपाद किंवा चतुष्पादही डोळस
म्हणजे आत्महत्या हा असा एकमेव शब्दय
जो लिहिता वाचता येण्यासाठी
अटच नाहीये साक्षर असण्याची
नि आता आताशा तर निरक्षरच सारे
मातीतून घाम पिकवणारे कष्टी
लिहू लागलेयत वळणदार आत्महत्या हा शब्द
म्हणजे प्रतिशब्दच शोधून काढलाय
या निरक्षरांनीच आत्महत्या या शब्दाला
जो लिहिता किंवा वाचण्याचीही नसते गरज कधीच
आत्महत्या हा शब्द
आता शेतकरी असाही लिहिता येतो
माणूस हा शब्द कसाही लिहिता येतो
कासव हा शब्द ससा असा नाही लिहिता येत
फार तर पळवता येतो द्रुत
नि पोहोचतो ही तो ससा अगोदर
ससा हा शब्द कासव असा नाही लिहिता येत
फार तर झोपवता येऊ शकतो यथेच्छ कुरणात
नि निघून जाऊ शकते कासव पुढे
माणूस हा शब्द मात्र वानर असाही लिहिता येतो
म्हणजे वानर लिहिल्यावर माणसाच्या जागी
एक ॲडिशनल शेपूटही लिहावी लागतेच आपसूकच
प्रसंगी तो सेतू बांधतो करतो पार सात समुद्र
पेटवतो लंका देतो आहुती प्राणांची
नि नि:पातही करतो दशाननाच्या साम्राज्याचा
माणूस हा शब्द प्रत्येक कवीनं
वेगवेगळा लिहिलेला असू शकतो
म्हणजे वाल्मीकीनी लिहिलाय नेमका तसा
म्हणजे माणसाच्या जागी वानर लिहून
सोय केलेली असते दुसऱ्या माणसांची
नि पहिल्या माणसाला दिलेला असतो प्रतिशब्द
एका कवीनं दिलेला माणसाला प्रतिशब्द राक्षस
या शतकातही अजून तसाच तर टिकूनेय
वानराचं प्रत्यक्ष माणसात रूपांतर झाल्यावरही
नि माणूस हा बिनशेपटीचा वानरच आहे
हे तर लिहिल्याच गेलेलं नाहीये अजून
फार्फार वर्षांपूर्वी शेपूट गळून पडल्यावरही
माणूस हा शब्द मात्र अजूनही
कसाही लिहिता येतो
पाणी
पाणी हा एक असा शब्दय जो काढता येतो
विहिरीतून समुद्रातून नदी नाला तलाव
किंवा फार्फार तर घरातल्या मठातून सुद्धा
म्हणजे किती सहज होतं पाणी हा शब्द लिहिणं
म्हणजे थेट नळाला लावला तांब्या तरी
यायचं भरून क्षणार्धात पाणी हा शब्द
म्हणजे विहिरीत सोडलेला दोर हातभर
किंवा परततांना शेतातून घेता येत होतं
नदीवर पाणी भरून कळशीत अगदी सहज
म्हणजे खळाळ वाहत राहायचा पाणी हा शब्द
कुठेही कधीही केव्हाही विनासायास
नव्हतंच काही अवघड पाण्यात लपलेलं
नव्हती मैलोन् मैल भटकंती नव्हता खडखडात
विहिरीच्या तळाशी रिकाम्या बादलीचा
नव्हती सुकली नाळ नळाची दूरवर पसरलेली
उडून गेलाय पाणी हा शब्द गावातून
नदीतून विहिरीतून थेट मठातून सुद्धा
गहाळ झालंय आद्याक्षर पाण्याचं
नि लिहिताच येत नाहीये
कुणालाच या सेंचुरीत
चार कविता
मंगेश नारायणराव काळे
Listen to the original read by the poet:
Mangesh Narayanrao Kale is a trendsetter in Marathi poetry. His long years of struggle on both the personal and professional front have shaped his writing. After completing his education, towards the late 1980s, he became a lecturer in journalism and then landed a job with a local newspaper as a subeditor. Three years later, he set out on his own, working at first as a shopkeeper, then as a the owner and operator of a photocopier, and finally as a vendor of sugarcane juice. Thereafter, he rented a treadle printing machine, beginning as a printer and graduating to the role of founder and publisher of a Marathi political weekly named Chakravyuh (meaning “troops in a ring formation”). Meanwhile, he also set up a publishing house and published twenty-six books in Marathi, thereby launching the writing careers of several poets. When the business closed, a long spell of unemployment followed. He would start from home in the mornings on the pretext of going to office, but would sit in a park, writing till sundown. This practice continued for more than two years.
When a new crop of post-globalization poets emerging after 1990 were keen on writing a poetry amenable to search engine optimization, Kale came up with a book of poems that stood out for its linguistic exuberance and vast canvas. On the release of the book, titled Shaktipatache Sutra (Aphorisms on Shaktipat), the renowned Hindi poet Chandrakant Devtale had said, “The poems remind me of the great struggle with the self, a struggle I had found only in Muktibodh’s poetry.” Muktibodh (1917–1964), it should be recalled, was one of the foremost Hindi poets whose influence is palpable to this day. Kale kept raising the bar for himself, book after book.
“Printer’s Devil” harks back to his nights of backbreaking labour at the offset printing machine. Besides “the thud-thud-thud of the machine,” his cerebrum also faced the constant cacophonic assault that rarely leaves the heads of those living on the edge. The line “I changed houses changed cities changed people” is autobiographical, like much else in the poem. “Water” is the result of his residence in several places in Maharashtra, India, where shortage of water is acute. Thus, “the word water has evaporated from the village.”
When a new crop of post-globalization poets emerging after 1990 were keen on writing a poetry amenable to search engine optimization, Kale came up with a book of poems that stood out for its linguistic exuberance and vast canvas. On the release of the book, titled Shaktipatache Sutra (Aphorisms on Shaktipat), the renowned Hindi poet Chandrakant Devtale had said, “The poems remind me of the great struggle with the self, a struggle I had found only in Muktibodh’s poetry.” Muktibodh (1917–1964), it should be recalled, was one of the foremost Hindi poets whose influence is palpable to this day. Kale kept raising the bar for himself, book after book.
“Printer’s Devil” harks back to his nights of backbreaking labour at the offset printing machine. Besides “the thud-thud-thud of the machine,” his cerebrum also faced the constant cacophonic assault that rarely leaves the heads of those living on the edge. The line “I changed houses changed cities changed people” is autobiographical, like much else in the poem. “Water” is the result of his residence in several places in Maharashtra, India, where shortage of water is acute. Thus, “the word water has evaporated from the village.”
Mangesh Narayanrao Kale is a poet, painter, editor and art critic. He is the author of five major books of poems in Marathi, including Mayaviye Tahrir (Writing is Bewitching), and two books of art criticism. He has won multiple awards for his outstanding contribution to Marathi literature, including the Maharashtra Foundation Award (USA), Bhavabhuti Award, and Yashwantrao Chavan Award. He has also received three fellowships, including one from the India Foundation for the Arts. Kale is the founding editor of Khel (Play), an acclaimed little magazine that has published several special issues celebrating the works of the finest poets writing in Marathi, including Vasant Abaji Dahake, Dilip Chitre, Vasant Dattatreya Gurjar, Tulsi Parab, Raja Dhale and Vilas Sarang, among others. His artworks have been exhibited all over India and abroad in both solo and group shows, and his essays on art and literature are regularly published in the most widely circulated periodicals of Maharashtra. He lives and works in Pune.
Sarabjeet Garcha is a bilingual poet and an editor, translator, and publisher. He is the author of four books of poems—including A Clock in the Far Past—besides a volume each of translated poetry and translated prose. He has translated several American poets into Hindi, including W.S. Merwin and John Haines, and several Indian poets into English, among them Mangalesh Dabral and Leeladhar Jagoori. His work has appeared in Versopolis, Modern Poetry in Translation, The Indian Quarterly, Domus India, The Wire, Right Hand Pointing, Indian Literature, and several other online and print journals. He is currently translating a book-length selection of Mangesh Narayanrao Kale’s poems. The recipient of a fellowship from the Ministry of Culture of India, Garcha is the founder and editorial director of Copper Coin, a multilingual publishing company.
