Of late I've been reading a bit of Dorothy Parker. Just a while back I came across yet another amazing poem called Résumé, which happens to be one of her more famous works:
Razors pain you;
Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you;
And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren't lawful;
Nooses give;
Gas smells awful;
You might as well live.
It's amazing, the way she could make me re-read this, over and again: twenty-six words was what it was, and still it was magical. After reading through this multiple times, the prosody seemed oddly familiar. Where have I heard eight lines like these? Where? Of the formataaabaaab abcdabcd, that had an impact on me, entirely different in nature, yet extremely similar in degree?
And then it struck me. It was unmistakable. Play this, and scroll to 1:15, 2:35 (for an encore), and see the magic unveil (with the unmissable echo effect to boot):
">
Paap se dharti phati... phati... phati...
Adharm se aasmaan... aasmaan... aasmaan...
Atyachar se knaapi insaaniyat... aaniyat... aaniyat...
Raaj kar rahen haiwaan... haiwaan... haiwaan...
Jinki hogi taaqat apoorn... apoorn... apoorn...
Jinka hoga nishana abhed... abhed... abhed...
Jo karenge inka sarvanaash... vanaash... vanaash...
Woh kehlaayenge Tridev... Tridev... Tridev.
The realisation suddenly made the world a lot better place to live.
Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you;
And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren't lawful;
Nooses give;
Gas smells awful;
You might as well live.
It's amazing, the way she could make me re-read this, over and again: twenty-six words was what it was, and still it was magical. After reading through this multiple times, the prosody seemed oddly familiar. Where have I heard eight lines like these? Where? Of the format
And then it struck me. It was unmistakable. Play this, and scroll to 1:15, 2:35 (for an encore), and see the magic unveil (with the unmissable echo effect to boot):
">
Paap se dharti phati... phati... phati...
Adharm se aasmaan... aasmaan... aasmaan...
Atyachar se knaapi insaaniyat... aaniyat... aaniyat...
Raaj kar rahen haiwaan... haiwaan... haiwaan...
Jinki hogi taaqat apoorn... apoorn... apoorn...
Jinka hoga nishana abhed... abhed... abhed...
Jo karenge inka sarvanaash... vanaash... vanaash...
Woh kehlaayenge Tridev... Tridev... Tridev.
The realisation suddenly made the world a lot better place to live.
ei dutor kono ta tei kono rhyme khuje pelaam na. plz explain how these are aaabaaab ;-)
ReplyDeleteon second reading there is a sort of abababab in the first and abcbabcb in the second !
ReplyDeleteVideo ar syntax er relation ta just nitey parlum na. But the poem was supremely fun to read.
ReplyDeletei see the source of confusion now. after seeing the video i realized you were talking about the prosody which is indeed aaabaaab, though i am not sure that, this kind of notation is used for anything other than rhyme scheme. but technicalities aside ;-) i like the poem! finally I have decided to live.
ReplyDelete:D
ReplyDeleteThere does not exist any word/phrase to describe this - even not the word Ghyam!
ReplyDelete