Editor’s note: Narendra Modi is generally known for his debating skills and oratory talents with which he has won several elections in his long political career. However, ever so often, the prime minister also shares his poetry on social media. He is, in fact, a published poet, and his book of poetry A Journey: Poems by Narendra Modi which was published in 2014 deals with all the same themes that we also find in his political campaigns — like that of Hinduism, and nationalism. Moving beyond that, the book also presents a rare glimpse of the PM’s connection with nature, and his insights on love, hope, and calamity. It was originally written by him in Gujarati and was later translated in English by Ravi Mantha. On his 70th birthday, here are some the poems by the prime minister for you to read:
Ode to Love
In the moment I became aware of you
In the serene Himalayan forest of my mind
A wildfire began, in raging earnest.
When I set eyes upon you
A full moon rose in my mind’s eye
The smell of sandalwood, of a tree in full bloom.
And then at last when we met,
Every pore of my being was filled, with fragrance
beyond compare.
Our separation has melted the peaks of my joy.
The fragrance turned into searing heat
That burns my body, reduces my dreams to ashes.
The full moon sits on the far bank
Relentlessly cold, gazing at my plight.
Without your tender presence
On the ship of my life
No captain have I, no rudder.
Calamity
The river, once graceful, a maiden in her first flush of youth
Is today a snarling lioness.
In spate, she lurches in insolence
Loses her inhibitions, pours out her anger
Sweeping away all in her path.
This river, when calm, a gentle life-giver,
Does she not see her own destructive power?
Whole villages washed away in her fervour
Bodies of the drowned floating downstream
Breaths expelled in one last scream
This power of Nature, a destructive reminder
To man who tries to shape her.
She has the last word.
Proud, as a Hindu
I feel proud as a human, as a Hindu.
When it wells up, I feel vast, an ocean
My faith is not at the expense of another’s
It adds to the comfort of my fellow man.
Only that man’s companionship I like
Who is filled with the warmth of devotion
Where the Narmada’s water flows like lifeblood,
I am a dewdrop on a flower.
I feel proud as a human, as a Hindu.
Even though the eye looks small
Its capacity for sight is vast indeed
One religious sect is not my street
Diverse my school of learning
Innumerable suns, clouds, planets, galaxies, in my sky,
I am but a moon.
I feel proud as a human, as a Hindu.
Kargil
I remember the innocence of Kargil
In an earlier time, I had seen
Tiger Hill as just another peak
At that time
The great mountain king’s white solitude
I had imbibed to my heart’s desire.
But today
Each one of the snow-crowned peaks
Roar, with echoes of the bombs, the guns.
On this slate of ice,
Like hot and burning coals
I saw our soldiers, our men.
Here, every soldier
Was a farmer
Sowing his own seed today
And irrigating it with blood.
So that our tomorrow
Does not wilt.
I saw in the soldiers’ eyes
Rising out of the mist
A hundred crore dreams
Their own eyelashes like strings
Holding the God of Death tightly
In their mind’s eyes, I saw our brave men
I felt the presence of Yamraj[1]
Prostrate, kissing the feet
Of our valiant.
The searing heat of their valour
Melts the ice, into a cool mountain spring
And in the spring’s flow down the peaks
I heard the distinct notes of a tune.
Sujalam
Suphalam
Malayajasheethalam
And from that spring’s womb
Sasyasyamalam
I felt the true meaning of the song,
Vande Mataram.
The following poems have been published with permission from Rupa Publications.
Editor’s note: Narendra Modi is generally known for his debating skills and oratory talents with which he has won several elections in his long political career. However, ever so often, the prime minister also shares his poetry on social media. He is, in fact, a published poet, and his book of poetry A Journey: Poems by Narendra Modi which was published in 2014 deals with all the same themes that we also find in his political campaigns — like that of Hinduism, and nationalism. Moving beyond that, the book also presents a rare glimpse of the PM’s connection with nature, and his insights on love, hope, and calamity. It was originally written by him in Gujarati and was later translated in English by Ravi Mantha. On his 70th birthday, here are some the poems by the prime minister for you to read:
Ode to Love
In the moment I became aware of you
In the serene Himalayan forest of my mind
A wildfire began, in raging earnest.
When I set eyes upon you
A full moon rose in my mind’s eye
The smell of sandalwood, of a tree in full bloom.
And then at last when we met,
Every pore of my being was filled, with fragrance
beyond compare.
Our separation has melted the peaks of my joy.
The fragrance turned into searing heat
That burns my body, reduces my dreams to ashes.
The full moon sits on the far bank
Relentlessly cold, gazing at my plight.
Without your tender presence
On the ship of my life
No captain have I, no rudder.
Calamity
The river, once graceful, a maiden in her first flush of youth
Is today a snarling lioness.
In spate, she lurches in insolence
Loses her inhibitions, pours out her anger
Sweeping away all in her path.
This river, when calm, a gentle life-giver,
Does she not see her own destructive power?
Whole villages washed away in her fervour
Bodies of the drowned floating downstream
Breaths expelled in one last scream
This power of Nature, a destructive reminder
To man who tries to shape her.
She has the last word.
Proud, as a Hindu
I feel proud as a human, as a Hindu.
When it wells up, I feel vast, an ocean
My faith is not at the expense of another’s
It adds to the comfort of my fellow man.
Only that man’s companionship I like
Who is filled with the warmth of devotion
Where the Narmada’s water flows like lifeblood,
I am a dewdrop on a flower.
I feel proud as a human, as a Hindu.
Even though the eye looks small
Its capacity for sight is vast indeed
One religious sect is not my street
Diverse my school of learning
Innumerable suns, clouds, planets, galaxies, in my sky,
I am but a moon.
I feel proud as a human, as a Hindu.
Kargil
I remember the innocence of Kargil
In an earlier time, I had seen
Tiger Hill as just another peak
At that time
The great mountain king’s white solitude
I had imbibed to my heart’s desire.
But today
Each one of the snow-crowned peaks
Roar, with echoes of the bombs, the guns.
On this slate of ice,
Like hot and burning coals
I saw our soldiers, our men.
Here, every soldier
Was a farmer
Sowing his own seed today
And irrigating it with blood.
So that our tomorrow
Does not wilt.
I saw in the soldiers’ eyes
Rising out of the mist
A hundred crore dreams
Their own eyelashes like strings
Holding the God of Death tightly
In their mind’s eyes, I saw our brave men
I felt the presence of Yamraj[1]
Prostrate, kissing the feet
Of our valiant.
The searing heat of their valour
Melts the ice, into a cool mountain spring
And in the spring’s flow down the peaks
I heard the distinct notes of a tune.
Sujalam
Suphalam
Malayajasheethalam
And from that spring’s womb
Sasyasyamalam
I felt the true meaning of the song,
Vande Mataram.
The following poems have been published with permission from Rupa Publications.