Shamsher Bahadur Singh

Chuka bhi Hoon Nahin Main

(Radhakrishna Prakashan, New Delhi, 1975)

(Sahitya Academy Awardee-Hindi-1977)

"Sri Shamsher Bahadur Singh, distinguished Hindi poet, was born at Dehradun in 1911. Abandoning his studies after his MA. (Previous) in English in 1938, he gave himself fully to poetry. Four of his collections of poems have been published so far and he also has one volume each of short stories and essays to his credit. Sri Singh, who is equally at home in Urdu and English, has translated extensively from them into Hindi. His translation of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland into Hindi has been widely appreciated. Hailed as a poet’s poet, he was the recipient of the Madhya Pradesh Sahitya Parishad Tulasi Award in 1977. Sri Singh has edited several literary magazines and retired as the Hindi editor in the Urdu-Hindi Dictionary Project of Delhi University in 1976. He is also deeply interested in painting.

Chuka bhi Hoon Nahin Main is considered an outstand­ing contribution to Hindi literature for its intensely personal yet highly disciplined diction and style, unique sense of earnestness and involvement with language and life, and depth of noble emotions which have their roots in Man's humanity and culture. (Citation)

Chuka bhi Hoon Nahin Main is fairly representative of Shamsher Bahadur Singh's poetry. The poems of this collection were written between 1938 and 1970.

There are two types of poems in Chuka bhi Hoon Nahin Main. One type may be called romantic, individualistic and formalistic, dealing with love, despair, memories of the past, natural beauty, etc. “Aik Neela Dariya Baras Raha”, “Yaden”, “Yoga”, “O Yuga Aa”, “Suryast”, “'Kiran Rekha Tilak”, “Surya-Apolo Stuti”, “Bhasha”, etc. are such poems. These poems are full of symbols and abstract images as well as abstruse and ambiguous. From the point of view of an ordinary reader these poems are difficult. The poet's following statement given in one of the poems of this collection, “Ishwar Agar Maine Arbi Main Prarthana Ki”, is true to some extent about these poems:

This is not poetry

But my diary

(In its original form

Not to be published        .

Just conversation with myself……..)     

In these poems, his formalistic leaning are expressed prominently. The other type of the poems may be called the progressive poems. These poems deal with his social concerns and Marxist commit­ments. “Satyamev Jayate”, “Akal” and “Aik Naya Gan Utha” are examples of such poems. These poems are concrete and transparent.

Some poems, which are written about particular incidents, individual occasions and objects have qualities and tendencies of both the types of poems.       '

Shamsher Bahadur Singb is very alert about the craft of his poem. He has a keen senisitivity to sound, colour and form. The influences of modern western poetry and Urdu poetry have deepened this sensibility. In the poems of Chuka bhi Boon Nahin Main, he has tried to integrate the arts of music, painting and sculpture with the art of poetry; and it may be said that he has succeeded to a great extent.

Har Dayal

(Source: Sahitya Academy Awards – Books and Writers – 1955-1978

Published by Sahitya Academy. ISBN 81 7201 014 1)