I am writing in Hindi for more than last twenty-five years. I am thankful first of All to Almighty for helping me at every stage of life. I had never imagined that my work will be recognized and a Day will come when someone will translate it in English. Moreover, the translation will be of poetic nature. When I gone through translations by Deepak Danish Ji who is my good friend also I got surprised. I am thankful to Deepak ji for his great efforts and superb work.
I do not have to say more this foreword is just to express my gratitude to all my readers, supporters and to whom who contributed to my dream comes true by the means of poetic translation of my Book “Sambhavana.”
I am thankful to Kindle Direct Publishing. This book was not possible without help of KDP. I am thankful to all my friends, family members and those who gave me strength to write against all odds.
I will be highly thankful to my readers for sending their comments and views on my work.
Kind Regards
Murli Srivastava
writermurli@gmail.com

Preface

When I was requested to write a preface for a book of poems in Hindi, I was a trifle surprised, since Hindi is not the medium I’m truly comfortable in. Fortunately I was being requested to write in English for a book of Poems in Hindi that had been translated into English. That made it difficult too but at the same time interesting!
Sambhavna is an individual’s deep probing into his own psyche and his responses to various stimuli in his environment. Hence at one level it is personal and yet it’s brilliance lies in the universality of its appeal. The reader finds himself reflected in many of the poems like The Distance, The Idealistic Mask, Tears etc.
I felt the powerful draw to the poems as I read them in Hindi first. Mr. Murli is a prolific writer no doubt, but more than that he’s is earnest and honest in his expressions. There is no guile in what he writes. The reader is not led through a labyrinth of linguistic conundrums to deceive him, instead the poets forthright style, endears him to the reader.
Murli Ji chooses a wide variety of subjects as the poems will reveal but the presence of the Almighty, is clearly evident. A superior being, a driving force revealing to him the purpose of his life as the years go by, string the poems together.
The title Possibility is unique in itself, for it’s like a fluid situation with no finality to it. And life is exactly so Fluid, it can be moulded, shaped bettered always.
The poem “Truth of the DNA” reveals the poets anathema for material gain, vulgar display of wealth and the mindless race there of. He finds himself lost till his figurative death leads him back to the truth—- his DNA. This for me is his finest poem in this collection.

It’s self evident that the inspiration behind his poems are the people in his life. His father his wife and his mentors.

“Between your threshold
And my forehead
Some hiatus remains
You just stopped short of being a deity
And I just fell from the grace
Of being a human
If you
In my view
Could become a God,
Then perhaps
My being human
Would be meaningful.”

The profundity of the above lines leaves me with no choice but to congratulate him on his artistry with words.
Every poet sees life in paradoxes. The great Romantics like Keats and Shelley, or the Victorians like Tennyson, all were plagued by the mortality/immortality, youth and age, truth and beauty etc. Murli Ji too has delved into these questions with a mature understanding of them.

“My store of mortal moments,
My creations
In which I could
Feel your presence
Have led me to
The comprehension
Of immortality;
In the midst of the mortality”

I sincerely hope his readers will react appreciatively to his sensitive poetry
A poet exposes the most delicate core of his being when he places his poems before the readers. There is only truth and nothing but the truth as he sees it.
I end with a quote from Rabindra Nath Tagore to inspire Mr. Murli Srivastava to continue his quest for truth through his poems.
“Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection”

Amrita Chatterji
Ex-Faculty, English Literature
St. Josephs College Allahabad