Old Age in Poems
Budhapa by Dandriyal : Marvelous Description of Old Age in a Garhwali Poem
(Garhwali Literature, Himalayan Literature, Asian Literature)
Bhishma Kukreti
There is no human being in this earth who never talks or who never thinks about Old Age . There is no art, science or philosophy which, did not discuss about Old Age .
Biologists as Morris Rockstein (Ph.D) sates in his article The Biological Aspects of Aging (The Gerontologists , 1968) that aging implies certain quantitative , rather than qualitative changes but not completely so . Morris further discusses that the aging brings changes which bring decrease in the skin, muscles, nervous system, skeleton, senses, etc
Psychologists watch old age from various views and styles. Psychologist confirm that during old age the person feels either accomplishment or failure and experience conflict between despair vs integrity .
From cultural angle . each culture interpret old age differently and even individual interprets old age differently too.
Various societies emphasize on aging differently in terms of social positioning to old aged people, quality of life, health, social exclusion , providing social security either by social norms or constitutional norms etc
Each country has different regulation for taking care of old aged persons.
Artists of different subjects or art perceive old age differently . Old age phenomenon is so sensitive and inspiring that artists as Leonardo de Vinci , Lorenzo De Medici, Michelangelo thousand of sculptures all over world of all eras created art about showing old age
In every philosophy and religion, there serious discussion about old age .
In every language, there are quotes and sayings about old . Oscar wild says , “ The tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young” .
In literature, in every language and in each field of literature old age has been favorite subject for literature creators specially the poets of all languages discussed old age with their perception.
Robert Browning’s small poem about old age is very positive and he paid importance to hope.
"Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made"
Mathew Arnorl depicts old age as morose portraits and poetically speaking brings detachment emotion of pathos rapture
" It is to spend long days
And not once feel that we were ever young.
It is to add, immured
In the hot prison of the present, month
To month with weary pain. "
Lord Byron details old age as mirror of the past in his verse as
"What is the worst of woes that wait on age?
What stamps the wrinkle deeper on the brow?
To view each loved one blotted from life's page,
And be alone on earth, as I am now."
The poem of Edwin Leibfreed explains old age as winter of the life
"When life's summer grows to winter
And its roses fade and fall;
When in vain we try to hinder
Death's commissioned right to all;
When on white lips there's a last kiss
And we see her face no more,
Then it is to know what love is,
Waiting on a foreign shore."
"Hennery Wordsworth Longfellow explains old age as
Time has laid his hand
Upon my heart, gently, not smiting it,
But as a Harper lays his open palm
Upon his harp, to deaden its vibrations"
The poets and philosopher W B Yeats illustrates old age as regret
"When you are old and gray and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep; "
An Iraqi Poet Buland Al-Haidary wrote a very interesting poem on Old age
“Another winter,
And here am I,
By the side of the stove,
that a woman might dream of me,
That I might bury in her breast
A secret she would not mock;
Dreaming that in my fading years
I might spring forth as light,
And she would say:
This light is mine;
Let no woman draw near it.”
“-Here,
By the side of the stove,
Another winter,
And here Am I,
Spinning my dreams and fearing them,
Afraid her eyes would mock
My bald, idiotic head,
My greying, aged soul,
Afraid her feet would kick
My love,
And here, by the side of the stove,
I would be lightly mocked by a woman.-“
“-Alone,
Without love, or dreams, or a woman,
And tomorrow I shall die of the cold within,
Here, by the side of the stove.-“
The poems In View of fact "of A. R. Ammons, "Forgetfulness" of Billy Collins, " Age " by Robert Creeley,"Terminus" by Ralph Waldo Emerson,"An Old Man’s Winter Night" created by Robert Frost, "Affirmation" versed by Donald Hall,"I Look into My Glass" of poet Thomas Hardy," First gesture "by Julia Kasdorf,"Touch Me" by Stanley Kunitz, are the poems on old age with different temparament and different emotions
Lu Yu a Chinese poet of twelth century wrote an outsatnding poem on aging in carefree mood .Wang Wei a Chinese poet of seventh century did create poem on old age based on Buddhist philosophy
"Nature" crafted by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,"Late Ripeness" of Czeslaw Milosz,"Hail and Farewell" versed by Charles Reznikoff,"Tired with All These, For Restful Death I Cry" written by William Shakespeare are reamrkable pieces of verses about old age
Hungarian poet Gyula Illyes wrote apoem on old age which is slightly similar to yeats.
The poems as ---" A su Retrato” a Spanish poem by Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz,Like as the Waves Make Toward the Pebbled Shore" by William Shakespeare,"Young men dancing, and the old" versed by Thomas Stanley, "Tithonus" written by Lord Alfred Tennyson, " Do Not Go Into That Good Night created by Dylan Thomas take the readers to think seriously about the aim of life
In japan , many Zen oriented poems on old age are written by various poets at various era
"The Descent" by William Carlos Williams, " After Retirement , After Reading Lear" written by David Wright, "Sailing to Byzantium" by William Butler Yeats, "Written In a Carefree Mood" created by Lu Yu, "Warning" versed by Jenny Joseph and many more are marvelous examples of poems about ‘Old Age’ . No doubt every poet perceived old age differently .
The follwing poem of a Japanese poetMuso Soseki is fine example of Buddhist philosophy on old age
"Old Man in Retirement" (A Japanese Poem)
By Muso Soseki
I stop worrying about anything
I give up activities
I'm full of my life
I no longer
go to the temple
evening and morning
If they ask me
“What are you doing
in your old age?”
I smile and tell them
“I'm letting my white hair
fall free.”.."
The famous Arabic poet Ibn Daher describes Old Age as
You can not prevent Allah's Will to make us Old
bBut perhaps he will reward us for enduring Old Age
The Noble Lauret a Polish poet CzeslawMilosz also wrote fine poetry on old age
Swami Chinmay transformed the sayings of Lord Buddha about old age into a poem as :
The glorious chariots of the kings wear out;
the body also comes to old age;
but the virtue of good people never ages;
thus the good teach each other
Great Poet (Mahakavi) Kanhaiyalal Dandriyal depicts old age philosophically, spiritually rather than just the transformation of physical body. As person Kanhaiyalal Dandriyal was very religious person too and his religious spirituality shines in his each verse. The functionality of the poem is towards various directions as conflict, reflecting contrast and ironies of life. The poem definitely is preaches too directly or indirectly. The poem opens many truthful facets of life and many times the poem creates detachment too. Kanhaiyalal Dandriyal depicts various ups and downs in life to carry a human life. The great poet shows the mirror to all whether the person is teen aged, young, mature or an old person that the end is death. Dandriyal differentiates between the acts through code of conducts and acts due to greed or ego with perfect narration using least quantity of words. For describing old age, the great poet took instances and characters of Mahabharata, Ramayan, Puran and classic poems of Sanskrit for narrating modern aspects of social security, the frustration of not achieving, the living aspirations, a animal instinct to protect the genes, and inability of all human beings to stop aging and death too .
Kanhaiyalal Dandriyal used various figures of speeches to make understand the serious subject. His words, symbols, phrases make a clear image of subject as per perception of the poet .
The Great Poet Dandriyal successfully could create the emotions as grief, awe, detachment, remorse, depression, anxiety, delusion, illusion, agitation, stupor, dejection, eagerness, epilepsy, insanity, death, deliberation, stunning, tears in the poem ‘Budhapa” (old Age)
The style in Budhapa poem is free and near to prose type poetry
The great poet is always master of using simple and understandable words, phrases, examples, symbols to make serious subject very easy for all
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