Book: Niguroko Kharani (Long narrative poems)

Author: Tanka Uprety

Publisher: Sarbada

Bangmaya Prathisthan

Price: Rs 75, Pages: 72

Kathmandu:

Niguroko Kharani, ashes of a fern, a collection of four-long poems, is Tanka Uprety’s fourth poetry collection.

Long poems generally loose their charm till they reach the end, but it’s not the case with this collection. The poems, the most written genre in Nepali literature, are the representatives of our present and past. The poet has developed his own style that even if they look like a long poem, they at the same time could be fragmented and still make sense.

His poems protest against betrayal and they also challenge the regime. They are bitter yet sober. They are long but not boring to read, because it seems he has embedded many haikus (thre-e-liner poems) into one long poem.

In Uprety’s poems, a reader can find many metaphors like Birupakchhya, who represents regressive forces, Yalamber, a character from the Mahabharata is a mute spectator, Jalkhumbhi, a water hyacinth is a vicious network and Niguroko Kharani itself represents the unfulfilled wishes. With so many metaphors, he himself seems confused;

I’m thinking

Who is living

With my face

(Yalamberko Shikar)