We lack Terrestrial Vocabulary for the Celestial Quest
Fahredin Shehu
“The Fist which opens”
(A journey of poetry therapy from the distant past to the present future)
By Rati Saxena
Kosovo was a constitutional province in Former Yougoslavia and I have experienced the disintegration of the Federation of six republics and two Provinces, Vojvodina and Kosovo. In that time, speaking about the 80-ties merely a few books from Indian lore passed in our libraries and or in bookshops. And if one was lucky to find something it was in Slavic languages, Serbian and Croatian. I happen to read at my young age The “Kamasutra” of Watsyayana, intrigued by how deeply it discussed human sexuality I asked to find more and came across the “Anangaranga of Kalyana Mala. These books were read in hidden since in that time there were some norms of morality one could not dare to openly display yet for me it was a strange comprehension of freedom we have lost a long time ago here in the Balkans.
Later on, impressed with the Hindu genius “I read The Life of Sri Ramakrishna”, by a famous French Orientalist Romain Roland also in the Croatian language yet nothing I could find in Albanian apart from “Gitanjali” and “Storm on the Gange”, by Rabindranath Tagore, the last which was a stipulator reading in my college years and again Albanian translations upon translations upon translations. After my graduation from Oriental Department At Prishtina University, I came across the Muller translations of Sacred Books of the East which crystalized all my partial awareness of the abundant plethora of thoughts of the East.
I have mentioned all these to come down, very down to the text of Rati Saxena, the study she has done in Poetry as Therapeutic tool for the Human wellbeing. One cannot be sufficiently grateful to encounter such an incredible work by a Vedic Scholar and a remarkable Poet who gave not only for India but in Global terms bringing poets from around the world to Kritya Poetry Festival in India. That much struggle and endeavor in service to Art, Beauty, and Humanity nowadays are very rare so I may only count a few names not covering all fingers of only one hand.
The book “The Fist which opens”, is almost Poetic because in around 100 pages to cover topics of Spirituality, Healing, Poetry as Art vs Poetry as Therapy, Oral Traditions of Poetry Healing and many more examples, recommendations, goals, and results are very difficult undertaking, yet she succeeded to envelop these incredibly interesting topics with such enthusiasm, perseverance, and craft.
Her emphasis on Education on Creativity for the upcoming generations is very important since we now live in a Global Society of Technical and Technological Advancement Humanity simultaneously developing in two main branches of Bio Algorithms (DNA synthesis) and Inorganic Algorithms (Silicon-based), have never seen before, impressed me largely due to the fact that the importance of Arts shall increase in the Cyber upcoming AI future humanity shall face in the next 30 to 40 years with the belief that AI may in the future compose an academic paper but not develop Emotional Intelligence sufficiently to write a poem like one of Hafez, Rumi, Kabir, Gibran, Kipling, and so on and so on.
She also did not omit to emphasize the understanding of Quantum Physics that is a scientific interpretation of Mystical Experience I grew up in my own Sufi Tradition, and that we are all connected as the matter is composed of protons and energy that never loses but transforms. Thus the book “The Fist which opens”, for real transforms our knowledge on Poetry and its relation to Humanity and all that we have created as conscious beings throughout History regardless of which corner of the World one may originate.
On the other hand, reading the Poetry of Rati Saxena one may truly immerse in the deep meaning of life, its values, its beauty, and its complexity considering common things we are surrounded every day with. It is sufficient to quote “The Hymn for the Dust” and reflect upon the fluid vocabulary from the creative impulse of Saxena.
“I feel envious
Of you Oh! dear Dust
And of your love for books
A love so deep
Penetrating through the gap of every leaf
Licking leaf by leaf
You write a story unknown
About your journey
Of directions
Where books blossom on trees
And words ripen like fruits”
…
I am indeed very delighted to enjoy the fruits of her creative and scientific work and encourage not only poets and literary critics but a wide global readership to absorb and disseminate Beauty Globally.
Fahredin Shehu
_________________________________
Prishtina, Kosovo
January the 9th, 2021.
Rati Saxena is a Poet, Translator, and Editor by accident, she is a student of culture, history and ancient literature, and philosophy by passion. Thus her soul is wandering in these different directions. Being the student of Vedic studies in honours and Masters, having done PhD on subject related to Atharvaveda, she has worked more in restudy of ancient literature. In this direction, her work under Indira Gandhi Fellowship is – “The seed of mind – A fresh approach to Atharvaveda” study along many articles for journals. She has five collections of poetry in Hindi and four in English (Translated or rewritten). She has Translate fifteen books mostly from Malayalam to Hindi, and five poetry books ( International poets ) from English to. Being a natural Traveller, she has two travelogues in her credit. She has also written a Memoire- “Everything is past tense” about Ayyappa Paniker’s poetic journey and one book of criticism on Balamanyaama’s poetry. Her poetry is translated in to many internationals languages like Italian, Irish, Vietnamese, Spanish, Estonian, Serbian, English and Turkey languages by international poets. She has been invited to more than 30 poetry festivals. She has been in three residencies in Germany and China. Member of the journal’s editorial board Multilingual Journal of Literature and Opto-Art “WürZarT,”2. She is member of an international scientific board, experience in musical and literary fields (www.squilibri.it). Her poem was also part of space mission by Jaxa, Japan, along with 24 other poems She is not big award catcher, still a few came to her automatically -Fellowship by Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts in 2004-5,Sahitya Akademi Award for Translation 2000 ,State Bank of Travancore Award for poetry 2001, Naji Naaman’s Literary Prizes (International) for complete work 2016 , DJS Translation award for Chinese poetry (DJS is the acronym in Chinese for (Emily) Dickinson, the American woman poet.)
