Ashok Vajpeyi gave a lecture on poetry of Czeslaw Milosz, a Polish-American poet, prose writer, translator, and diplomat.

Ashok Vajpeyi gave a lecture on poetry of Czeslaw Milosz, a Polish-American poet, prose writer, translator, and diplomat

-Eastern European poetry is important to understand human psychology in a better way. It also help in understanding how human emotions play an important role.

-Two important consequences of interactions (connections; संक्रमण) what world witnessed: one is taking the lessons from other nations by comparing themselves with others and by analyzing oneself critically, as once you interact with others, you start questioning yourself too. Second is the development of one's own cultures.

-What poetry did in eastern Europe was radically changed the idea of "मानवीय अवधारणा". People started shifting their focus to the notion of "HUMANISM" and started understanding its importance in human life and in civilizations as well.

-It was the time of 'World Wars' when so many things happened simultaneously in different regions.

•It was the time of "मानवीय क्रूरता की चरम सीमा", also it was the time of British colonialism.

•On the one hand, we witnessed VIOLENCE, on the other hand, in India, there was a man named Gandhi who propagated the idea of NON-VIOLENCE under such circumstances and conditions and started movements based on the idea of NON-VIOLENCE.

•At that time, violence was so much that, on the one hand it harmed and destroyed the intellectual of the people; on the other, it was the time when Gandhi found nothing vulgar and obscene after reading "Chocolate" (चॉकलेट आधुनिक हिन्दी साहित्य में समलैंगिक रिश्तों पर पहली पुस्तक मानी जाती है) based on the theme of homosexuality, written by Pandey Bechan Sharma 'Ugra'.

-All types of states including Democratic, Republic, Monarchy have something in common i.e., मूर्खता।

-Poetry gives you hope (कविता उम्मीद प्रदान करती है). Without having a sense of 'hope', it is difficult to write poems.

-कल्पना, यथार्थ और अंतर्द्वंद्व का भाव भाषा की वृद्धि में योगदान प्रदान करता है।

-In modern times, there are many things that divert you from recognizing and acknowledging your weakness. आज हम 'रोशनियों' के तमाम साधनों से घिरे हुए है, जो हमें हमारे 'अंधेरे' से भटकाने का काम करते है।

-अपने ऊपर जासूसी करना अनिवार्य शर्त है। (Idea of skepticism)

-"संघर्ष में सुंदरता" के समान दूसरा कोई अद्भुत दृश्य नहीं। रामचंद्र शुक्ल ने कहा है कि "सुंदरता कर्म में होती है"।

-साहित्य की अपनी नैतिकता होती है। अज्ञेय ने लिखा है कि "मैं सच लिखता हूँ : लिख-लिख कर सब झूठा करता जाता हूँ"। एक अच्छा लेखक अपनी 'अपर्याप्तता' की पहचान करता है और उसे स्वीकारता भी है। (Socrates wrote- "The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.")

-कविता में पवित्रता को वापस लाने की असीम क्षमताएं है। Also, poetry has the ability to demonstrate the relations between the "violence in experiences of history" and the "violence in personal experiences". It also has the ability to challenge the very idea of 'Totalitarianism'.

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कविता ही मेरा स्वर्ग है और मेरा नर्क भी।

-अशोक वाजपेयी

This lecture was organized by Department of Hindi, Faculty of Arts, University of Delhi on 25-04-2-23.

Ashok Vajpeyi is a Hindi poet-critic, translator, editor and culture-activist apart from being a noted cultural and arts administrator, and a former civil servant.