I selected that book among the hundreds in his shelf, because the two
poems on the back cover attracted me. They are:
kAvyamunaku kAvyame pUr-
Na vyAkhyAnam-maTanDru prAj~nulu, yee nee
navya kavitA kRtiki sam-
bhAvyamu padya praSamsa bhadramu varadA! - viSwanAtha
nee vrAsina "cerakAlam"
teevramgA caduva caduva teralenu paradA
nee vrayyalaina hRdayapu
cE-vrAlE kAvyamai rasincenu varadA! - Sree Sree
Today I was thumbing through the book, and happened to read an interview
by the editor, Dr. parakAla prabhAkar, with AVR. It is about 6 pages in
demy-size, in rather small print. I am translating a portion of it here.
It was fascinating to me. At the time of borrowing the book, I had no
idea of the following, that abbUri subscribed to these ideas,... In fact,
I didn't know much about abbUri, other than the references here on telusa,
and/or SCIT.
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AVR: (Sree Sree borrowed the manuscript of "cerakAlam" and lost it.)
Friends have been asking me to re-write "cerakAlam". I didn't feel like
it. Because, my outlook was different, at the time I wrote it. I
experimented in that work. For the most part, I used traditional
chandassu. sragdhara, bhujanga prayAtam, geetam, kandam campaka mAla -
used all of these. In the vyAvahArika bhAsha for the most part. The rest
of them were in mAtrA chandassu. Later once viSwanAtha said to me "nee
snEhitulantA chandassu meeda virucuku paDatArEm? vALLaki cAtakAvAli
kani, andulO rAyaTAnikEm bAdha? nuvvu rAsi cUpincAvu kadA! yinkA yEm
kAvli vALLaki?" kRshNa SAstri said the same thing. Somehow I didn't feel
like re-writing the whole thing again........
PP: Present day poets consider chandassu to be an obstacle for the
current "speed" of things. Chariots, palanquins, and horse carriages
are passe now, giving way to motor cars, and trains. gurajADa turned the
poetry into this modern age; we made the travel easier, they say.
AVR: First SreeSree made this argument. In fact, the disparity in the
speed of things is in nature itself. What is the speed of light? Of the
storm? Of the rising tide? From time immemorial, poets have known these
fast and speedy things. No doubt about it. We can see this in the
gait of the poem, and in the way they expressed themselves. "kuppinci
yegasina kuNDalambula kAnti gagana bhAgambella gappikonaga", said pOtana.
That is the "Adhunikata"! In those things, there has been no change,
from then to now. So is chandassu.
PP: But aren't some saying that poetry should be written without chandas?
AVR: Because they don't know what chandas is. Morever, chandas is very
near and dear to poetry. There is no poetry without chandas. chandas is
a discipline. a way of arranging things. a set of rules. words, or
sentences, when transformed to poetry, are bound by this discipline.
Then it acquires a certain "laya". Then it becomes poetry. This has to
do with technique.
Even in the old days, chandas was quite diverse. That's why they said
"anantA vai chandah". Forgetting the infinite diversity in it, to totally
discard it indicates confusion.
Moreover, all nature is full of chandas. For every element of the nature,
there is chandas. Nature's reflection is chandas. I believe poetry is a
"prati-spandana" of nature. Poetry comes out of an inner conflict inside
the poet - said Yeats. Look at the nature. Seasons, sunrise and sunset,
the earth's rotation, eclipses, all of these are governed by rules. Same
way, the sound of the wheel when a cart is running, when a horse is
galloping, these have a certain pitch. So is perhaps the blood circulation
in the body, your breathing. I call all of this chandas. Without chandas
there is no creation (sRshTi). No life, no music, no poetry. I don't think
such an amount of argument is necessary on this matter. I think chandas is
a very natural supporting structure for any artistic endeavour.
PP: What do you say about "vacana kavitwam"?
AVR: We imported this feature from abroad. And we are using it without
paying attention to its nature. That name itself is a misnomer. SreeSree
adopted this prakriya, after he already was famous. Along with him, myself,
kundurti, ElcUri, Arudra, ramadasu, tilak, rAjaSEkhar; we all tried to
publicize this new form. After a while I realized, along with rAmadAsu,
and tilak that we cannot adequately handle this form, that its future is
uncertain, and abandoned it. Later they both passed away. The fame that
was due SreeSree, he had already acquired it because of chandas.
They said that the old poets also wrote "vacanAlu". However, those
vacanAlu had a certain structure (the word used is "lakshaNam"). Even
then they didn't become famous. That has been our experience. So it is
no difficult task to see where "vacana kavitwam" is headed. I see mostly
"vacanam" in the present day "vacana kavitwam". As for myself, I don't
think I succeeded in this endeavour (of writing vacana kavitwam).
PP: Why did you use traditional chandas?
AVR: There is a reason. gurajADa's mutyAla sarAlu was a traditional
chandas too! Because he named it thus, it acquired a certain new-ness.
Some of the verses (in that meter) he wrote in "SishTa vyAvahArikam".
Some of his followers - many among the poets of that day, used that
meter. Except for viSwanAtha, all of them used that chandas in a
grAnthika style (viSwanAtha used a vyAvahArika style in kOkilamma peLLi).
Even appArAo, wrote more than half of his poetry, in saraLa-grAnthika
style. So, my experiment was in using vyAvahArika bhAsha, and traditional
chandas.
PP: Would you define what is poetry?
AVR: That is a wrong question. How do you define taste? How do you
define a fragrance? You know it by experience. Read nannaya's poem in
Sakuntala episode.
ma. vipareeta pratibhAshalEmiTiki, yurveenAtha, yee puttra-gAt-
ra parishwanga sukhambu cEkonumu, muktAhAra karpUra sAnd-
ra parAga prasarambu, jandanamu, jandra jyOtsnayun buttra gAt-
ra parishwangamu naTlu jeevulaku hRdyambE kaDun SeetamE
(Why all this discussion, King! Embrace this child, and you'll know it
yourself. The fragrance of camphor, sandalwood paste, moonlight, the
embrace of one's child (that is is one's own child) reveal themselves.
-bad translation. TSR/BSR/VP- come to my rescue)
That is poetry. I'll give you another example. SreeSree wrote a khanDika
called "supta-asthikalu". It is full of "poetry". This is the last poem
from that.
tE. nA kanungava kanneeLulai karangu
navi yonarceDu neeravAhvAna merigi
inta SOshillunElo nA hRdaya puTamu
vaNaku nEtiko nA asthi panjarammu!
This is poetry. I can show several examples like this. "alankArikamgA
rasAnubhUti vaiyaktikam" (loosely, taste is individual). What one likes,
another may not. Nothing wrong with that. Yet, one has to clearly
understand the difference between prose and poetry.
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The book is "kavitA sancika, Collected Poems of abbUri varada rAjESwara
rAvu", edited by dr. parakAla prabhAkar, published by navOdaya, in 1993.
No date is given for the interview.
Ramakrishna