One of Da Ra Bendre’s most famous poems, revealed to the world when he recited it at the close of his President’s Speech at the Kannada Saahitya Sammelana in Shivamogga in 1943. Per his own admission, the rapturous reception it received left him reeling.
Here is a recording of my reciting the original Kannada poem.
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To read and listen to more (including the entire translation), please buy my book, The Pollen Waits On Tiptoe. If you are living in India, you can buy the book by going to this page.
THREE IMPORTANT MATTERS:
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3. The book is also available as an ebook. The app hosting the ebook is called VIVIDLIPI and the book can be purchased at this link. (Since the publisher does not have an agreement with Amazon, I am afraid the book is not available on Kindle.)
This poem is a masterpiece worthy of the highest praise.
Also the poem struck a chord with the current situation where we need some heavenly help to ward off the world’s sufferings.
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I agree completely, Vyasa! This is sublime poetry, capable of being written only by a ವರಕವಿ. Imagine how the audience that listened to Bendre recite it LIVE must have felt! You know that question about “if you could back to some time in the past, what would you choose?”. Well, I’ve often thought it would be something to go back to Sahitya Sammelana of 1943 and listen to Bendre end his ಅಧ್ಯಕ್ಷ ಭಾಷಣ with this poem’s rendition! ಆಹಾಹಾ!
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Well actually I was referring to your poem as well as the original!
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Oh! How nice! That’s really very gratifying to hear, Vyasa! Thank you very much. 😊🙏
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