From the Poet PM

Two poems by Narendra Modi

GN Bureau | March 21, 2017


#Prime Minister Modi   #PM Modi   #Narendra Modi Poems   #NaMo   #Verses   #Poems   #Narendra Modi   #World Poetry Day  
PM Narendra Modi
PM Narendra Modi

Like Atal Behari Vajpayee before him, prime minister Narendra Modi is a poet. He has written quite a few poems in Gujarati. On the occasion of World Poetry Day (March 21), Governance Now presents two short poems by the prime minister that reveal another side of his personality. They are excerpted from 'A Journey: Poems by Narendra Modi', translated from Gujarati by Ravi Mantha, and published by Rupa.

 
Verb
 
I am a man of action
Even when I write,
I draw a circle of words
And then I make the circle a square.
In that circle which is now a square
I place words, colourful, smooth as marbles
These words of glass
Are words of truth -- like tears
They form a period at the end of a sentence.
 
Near lie the adjectives, within the confines of a
Lakshman Rekha
They keep the piety of Ram
Adjacent to them the nouns keep playing
A game of tic-tac-toe.
 
I keep the verb in the centre,
And then I draw one endless circle, resolute.
 
 
Liar's Praise
 
If you call water stone
Or stone you say is water
You claim the cloud, a fold in the sky
You call a lotus babul
Makes no difference to any but you.
 
You can call rumour truth
And claim that day is night
You can call spring autumn
Slander the ocean, call it a desert
You can even call life, death.
 
This, your adultery of speech
You are welcome to its treats.
Nature is there to bear silent witness
Calm, detached and composed.
 

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