4 April 1992 Sahitya Akademi meet the author Nissim EzekielExcept the Lord build the house- and not even always then- they labour in vain that buitd it. Yet, itis better to buitd than to abstain from burding, and no labour is altogether in vai if is nat vain to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorraw. Psaim 2, Latter-Day Psaims oet, playwright, editer and P etic of literature and art in India, NISSIM EZEKIEL, was bornin 1924 in a Jewish (Bene- Israeli) family. Religious tolerance in India was aboon to Bene-Israeli families and they notenly adopted Maharastriansocialcustoms, they also accepted Marathi as the community language. However the first name of each Bene-Israeli was carefully chosen from the Bible Nissim Ezekiel studied English at Wilson College Bombay and Philosophy at Birkbeck College, London. A former Head of the Deparment of English, Bombay University and a Visiting Professor at the University of Leeds, he is easily one of the most notable Post- Independence Indian English poets of verse. Ezekiel’s poetry is shaped by his family background and thus substantially distinct from some aspects of Indian ethos, The alienation theme is central to Ezekiel's works In his own words, the poet, like a woman, must labour to be beautiful. In his poems, he uses apt images and incorporates the heat and dust, the sense of poverty and deprivation into the texture of his works. His religious! philosphical poetry arises out of a tension within his own personality. His reputation as a writer ofsecular and divine poems ts quite secure [Link], Vice- Chancellor of Allahabad Universily has assessed Ezekiel's poetry in a memorable way. Ezekiel's poems come from the truth of life and from the felt experiences of his own life, He is an interpreter of the heart and its emotions, a lover of his surroundings, and a believer in the concept that all life is one, To him the man who writes and the man who suffers are often one and the same. That is why he eels the flesh of the poem’, He penetrates Geeper inte new areas of life andtries to see the extricate web of circumstances of human existence, the inner core of reality, Ezekiels poetry reveals technical skill ofa nigh order. His mastery of the vernacular idioms is matched by some command of rhythm and rhyme. In his poems one finds the imprint of a keen analytical mind trying to explore and communicale on a personal level, feelings oflass and distress Ezekiel is a serious poet, perhaps the most serious of them all. What distinguishes him from acrawd ol versifiers is a genuine sophistication in the use of language barn of fine insights into life, In his A History of indian English Literature [Link] writes: ‘With Marathi (on his own admission) as his ‘lost mother tongue’ and Englishas his ‘second mother tongue’, Ezekiel’s quest forintegration mace for arestless career of quick changes and experiments including‘philosophy/poverty and poetry’, in aLondon basement room and attempts at journalism, publishing and advertising — and even a spell of working as a factory manager — before he settled down as a university teacher in his bitter native city. Latter - Day Psalms (1982) which wen him the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1983, has been acclaimed as a valuable contribution to contemporary Indian Literature in ‘English, for its poetic sensibility and thematic variety. His Night of the Scorpion is one of the admirable poems in modern Indian English Literature. The tale is told by an onlooker who is naither impertinently ironical nor clearly detached. In this poem, Indian reality is expressed in a quiet personal voice, and it stands out in the reader's mind as a signpost indicating the direction poetry in English is likely to take in the future. Together with A.K. Ramanujan, Ezekiel invented. the idiom and metre of Post- Independence Indian English verse. Poet, Lover, Birdwatcher, epitomizes his search for a poetics which would help him redeem. himselfin his eyes and inthe eyes of God. With him, Indian English Poetry has become a part of the Receiving Sahitya Akademi Award from Prof. V.K. Gokak mainstream of the literature of India. According to Nissem Ezekiel ‘Good Poetry is not always clear and lucid: nevertheless, the amateur poet oughtto aimateclarity and lucidity. Concrete and relevant images are usually superior to vague immensities, Simple, disciplined forms. within which much freedom can be exercised. help the poet to discover what he feels, more than sprawling accumulation of lines. Rhyme and other devices may be discarded only ifstructural compensations and very special effects are provided instead. Development within a poemis a sign of maturity in the poet.’ He was the Editor for Poetry India for some time. Prof. K.R. Srinivasa lyengar writes in his Indian Writing in English: “An artist who is willing to take pains, to cultivate reticence, to pursue the profession of poetry with a sense of commitment, Ezekiel’s poems are as a rule lucid - a merit these days - and are splendidly evocative and Satisfyingly sensuous. In his first twovolumes. persons and places, memories and situations, literary echoes and moments of vision, all inspired Ezekiel to poetic utterance. He was painfully andpoignantly aware af the flesh, its insistent urges. its stark ecstasies, its disturbing filiatians with the mind. In his later poetry, however, there is revealed a more careful craftsmanship, a more marked restraint and a colder, a more conscious intellectuality, than in the first two volumes. There is a gain in quality and integrity, and he is able to achieve conversational directness and ease without losing himself in discursiveness.” Ezekiel is rather fond of investigating the circuitous ways in which the human mind works. His first collection A Time to Changeis unique in its display of a line sense of structure with an inevitable seli-evolving logic. In his Sixty Poems. he rightly says that the symbols of nature mean what one can make of them al various stages tn life. The Unfinished Man is an inspired work, prolific in its proper fruits. Ezekiel here showed a mastery of song ‘which he was never to match again. Enterprise is another fine poem which shows lyrical gift of expression. Written as a generalised allegory of the pilgrimage theme, it treats a journey as a metaphor for life The memorable close of Ezikiel’s poem Night af the Scorpion deserves special mention. My mother only said Thank God the scorpion picked on me and spared my children. Ezekiel has tried his hand in plays too. His Three plays (1969) include Naiini:A comedy: Marriage poem: A Tragi-Gamedy and the The Sleepwalkers : An Indo - American farce. There is a skilful use of ironical tantasy in these plays. tis Ezekiel’s commitment to the land of his birth that his verses so visibly sing of, andthat too in such a Manner as ta make his poetry communicative and deeply moving Ezekiel’s achievement is all the greater because he has not only been a competent critic but aiso a devoted post. William Walsh was right when he said: ‘Ezekiel’s poetry more than that of any otherofthese writers seems te be generated from within and ta have within it a natural capacity for development. It is intellectually complex, mobile in phrasing, fastidious in diction, and austere in acceptance.’ Ezekiel is one of the India’s best known voices. He is. a poet of pilgrimage. Today he remains. . the most celebrated Indian poet, writing in English.A SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY POETRY 1. M © A Time ta Change and other Poems, Fortune Press, London, 1952, Sixty Poems, Bomaay, 1953 The Third, The Strand Book Shop, Bombay, 1959, The Unfinished Man, Writers’ Workshop. 1960; 2nd edition with introduction and notes by Eunice de Souza. 1965. The Exaet Name, Writers’ Workshop. 1965. Hymns in Darkness, Oxtord University Press. New Delhi 1976 Latter-Day Psalms, Oxford University Press, New Delhi 1982. Collected Poems 1952-1988, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1989 im Ezekiel Selected Prose, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1992 DRAMA ts 2 Three plays: Nalini, Marriage po nd The Sleepwaikers, Writers Workshop, Calcutta. 1968 Song of Deprivation, Enact Delhi, 1969. Epr TED indian Writers in Conference, The P.E.N. All India Centre, 1964. Writing tn India, P.E.N. All India Centre, 1965 An Emerson Reader. Popular Prakashan, Bombay, 1965. A Martin Luther King Reader, Popular Prakashan, Bombay, 1969. Arthur Millar: All My Sons, Oxford University Press, 1972 JOURNALS EDITED 3, 4, Poeiry India, six issues from January-March, 1966 toApril- June, 1967. Quest from August 1955 to July 1957. /mprint1961-1970. (Associate Editor) ‘Poetry Page of The Nustrated Weekly af india ESSAYS AND ARTICLES 1 2. With an Australian Poet ‘Ideas and Modern Poetry in indian Writers in Conterence, 1964. ‘The Knowledge of Dead Secrets-on the wisdom of Sit Henry Harcourt-Reilly in T.S. Eliot-A Homage fram india, Ed. by [Link], Writers Worksop, 1965.10 1924 1947 1948 1952 1953 A Review of Poems Mimomsa by Dilip K. Chakravarty, Dialogue India No.3 Ed. by Pritish Nandy. Introductionin Books Abroad: An international literary quarterly, Autumn, 1969. Poetry as Knowledge,” in Quest, No.76, May-June 1972 ‘Sri Aurobindo on Poetry’ in The Times of India, Sunday, July 23, 1972. ‘Should Poetry be Read to Audiences?’ The Sunday Statesman Magazine, August 27, 1972. ‘K.N. Daruwalla’ in Quest, No.74, January-February 1972. ‘Poetry and Philosophy’, in Quest, No. 50 Hindu Society: A Diabolic Vision,’ in The Times of India, July 13, 1966. A CHRONOLOGY Birth NLA. English Literature Studied Philosophy at Birkbeck College, London First book of Poems A Time to Change published Married Daisy Jacob Second Sook of verse Stay Poems published 1955 1957 1959 1960 1961 1963-66 1964 1965 1966-67 1967 1969 1972 i974 1976 1983 1988 With Ashokamitran Edited bi-monthly Quest Visited American Universities His Third book of Poems The Third published The Unfinished Man, published Joined Imprint, monthly Prof. of English and Head of the English Department, Mithibai College of Arts, Bombay. Secretary, Indian P.E.N. Visiting Professor, University of Leeds. The Exact Name — fifth volume of Poems published. Edited Poetry ingia Lectured on Indian writing in English at the University of Chicago Three Plays published Joint Executive Editor. The Indian P.E.N. Visited United States on invitation from U.S. Govt. Member General Council, Lalit Kala Akademi and Sahitya Akademi Sahitya Akademi award for his book Latter-Day Psalms Padmashri from Govt. of India.