A selection of unforgettable verse by 21 poets from around the world.Celebrating the unforgettable poets from across the world.Although the UNESCO celebrates March 21 as World Poetry Day, many countries, including the UK, still prefer to celebrate poetry day around October 15, which coincides with the birthday of Virgil, the Roman epic poet and poet laureate under Augustus. Earlier this year, The Independent published an article by Clarisse Loughrey, ‘World Poetry Day: 28 of poetry’s most powerful lines ever written‘, in which, barring the flamboyant Pablo Neruda, the 27 poets with the “most powerful lines ever written” were chosen from the English language. Even E.E. Cummings and Charles Bukowski, not usually regarded as great poets despite their popularity, find a place in the list.A list claiming to represent “world poetry” cannot be so unapologetically English. A brilliant Neruda, despite being one of the bestselling poets in the world, alone cannot be picked up and granted imperial generosity. Market value cannot determine the readers’ choices. The debate on popularity often reappears before the announcement of the Nobel Prize for Literature. The prize has often been awarded to writers unfamiliar to the English-speaking world. In the backdrop of these contexts, here’s a list of unforgettable lines of poetry by poets who did not write in English, but no less memorably for that matter.Our intimacy with political poetry, with new, radical forms of expression, particularly since the last century, has been best served by poets from France, Germany, Russia, Greece, Poland, Spain, Turkey, Mexico, Chile and other countries. The way non-Western filmmakers, from countries like Iran, Turkey, Thailand and Japan have offered us a different awareness of avant-garde cinema, poetry from languages other than English has played a profoundly similar role in bringing us new forms and sensibilities in literature. This is not a definitive list, but one illuminated by memory. The selection is subjective, but I hope ardent readers of poetry will surely find their beloved poets and lines.§Rainer Maria Rilke. Credit: Wikimedia CommonsRose, oh pure contradiction, joyof being No-one’s sleep under so many eyelids.~ Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus§Czeslaw Milosz. Credit: nobelprize.orgLove means to learn to look at yourselfThe way one looks at distant things ~ Czeslaw Milosz, Love§Paul Celan. Credit: Wikimedia CommonsBlack milk of morning we drink you at dusktimewe drink you at noontime and dawntime we drink you at nightwe drink and drinkwe scoop out a grave in the sky where it’s roomy to lie~ Paul Celan, Death Fugue§Bertolt Brecht. Credit: Wikimedia CommonsIn the dark times Will there also be singing? Yes, there will also be singing.About the dark times.~ Bertolt Brecht, In Dark Times§Yannis Ritsos. Credit: Wikimedia CommonsI know that each one of us travels to love alone, alone to faith and to death. I know it. I’ve tried it. It doesn’t help. Let me come with you. ~ Yannis Ritsos, Moonlight Sonata§Mahmoud Darwish. Credit: Wikimedia CommonsWriting is a puppy biting nothingness Writing wounds without a trace of blood. ~ Mahmoud Darwish, Under Siege§An Ottoman era manuscript depicting Rumi and Shams-e Tabrizi. Credit: Wikimedia CommonsForget safety.Live where you fear to live.Destroy your reputation.Be notorious.~ Jalaluddin Rumi, Bewilderment§Osip Mandelstam. Credit: Wikimedia CommonsPower is disgusting, like licking a barber’s hands.~ Osip Mandelstam, Ariosto§Arthur Rimbaud. Credit: Wikimedia CommonsOne evening I sat Beauty on my knees – And I found her bitter – And I reviled her.I armed myself against Justice.~ Arthur Rimbaud, Season in Hell (Prologue)§Sappho. Credit: Wikimedia CommonsEros once again limb-loosener whirls meSweetbitter, impossible to fight off, creature stealing up~ Sappho, Fragment§Fernando Pessoa. Credit: Wikimedia CommonsI don’t know how many souls I have.I’ve changed at every moment.I always feel like a stranger.I’ve never seen or found myself.~ Fernando Pessoa, Untitled§Anna Akhmatova. Credit: Wikimedia CommonsNo, not under a foreign sky,No not cradled by foreign wings –Then I was with my people, I,With my people, there, sorrowing.~ Anna Akhmatova, Requiem§Federico Garcia Lorca. Credit: Wikimedia CommonsWoodcutter.Cut out my shadow. Free me from the torture of seeing myself fruitless. ~ Federico Garcia Lorca, Song of the Barren Orange Tree§A painting of Bei Dao. Credit: TwitterI came into this world Bringing only paper, rope, a shadow, To proclaim before the judgment The voice that has been judged: ~ Bei Dao, The Answer§Miroslab Holub. Credit: TwitterThe bird had come to the very end of its songand the tree was dissolving under its claws.~ Miroslav Holub, The End Of the World§A painting of Antonio Machado by Joaquin Sorolla. Credit: Wikimedia CommonsIt is good knowing that glassesare to drink from;the bad thing is not to knowwhat thirst is for.~ Antonio Machado, Songs & Proverbs§Basho by Sugiyama Sanpû. Credit: Wikimedia CommonsDon’t imitate me;it’s as boringas the two halves of a melon.~ Basho, Haiku§Adunis. Credit: Wikimedia CommonsDeath is nearbecause it is an idea not a bodyand love is distantbecause it is a body not an idea ~ Adunis, Candlelight§Arseny Tarkovsky. Credit: Wikimedia CommonsWe are so bound up in discordThe centuries cannot disentangle us—I’m a warlock, you’re a wolf. We’re closeIn the continuous dictionary of earth.~ Arseny Tarkovsky, Song Under the Bullet§Nazim Hikmet. Credit: Wikimedia CommonsIt’s this way: being captured is beside the point, the point is not to surrender.~ Nazim Hikmet, It’s This Way§Forough Farrokhzad. Credit: Wikimedia CommonsLife is perhaps lighting up a cigarettein the narcotic repose between two love-makings~ Forough Farrokhzad, Another BirthManash Firaq Bhattacharjee is a poet, writer, translator and political science scholar from JNU. He has most recently contributed to Words Matter: Writings Against Silence, edited by K. Satchidanandan (Penguin India, 2016). He is currently an adjunct professor in the School of Culture and Creative Expressions at Ambedkar University, New Delhi.
