Mohan Koirala- Architect of Modern Nepali Poetry

Mohan Koirala- Architect of Modern Nepali Poetry

The news of sad demise of poet Mohan Koirala once again took me a trip down memory lane; his residence at Maitidevi where I interviewed him a decade ago for
The Kathmandu Post. With his death, I slowly started counting the number of Nepalese literary figures that I interviewed and are no longer with us- Dr. Ishwar
Baral, Kedar Man Vyathit, Vijaya Malla, Keshav Raj Pidali, Daulat Bikram Bista, Basudev Luitel, Danuschandra Gotame and now Mohan Koirala..
When I interviewed Mohan Koirala in my Face to Face column in The Kathmandu Post, he was 70, and was confined within his house because of heart operation
sometime back. Though frail he looked, he was still energetic and optimistic about poetry. "I wrote long poetries like Suryadan(The sun gift) and Lek(The hilly region)
to show people that poetry can be written in prose as well, because earlier some critics were skeptical about the existence of prose poetry." he told me.
By and large, the most remarkable persona of the modern generation whose name comes to the mind off hand in the context of the modern Nepali poetry is Mohan
Koirala. When the soft spoken poet came into the limelight in late fifties, the stalwarts of the earlier period were still dominating the literary scene and the literary
movement like Tesro Ayam(Third Dimension) was about to make its entry into Nepalese literature. But because of his prolific and inspiring poetic career, he
overshadowed some of them and established himself as a one of the leading poets of the modern Nepali poetry.
Although Mohan Koirala's first poetry was published in Saradha, his first poetry ever written was Jhadha jhadha Samjhera (Remembering while going) which later
published in Pragati edited by Narayan Prasad Baskota. It was around 1948. Henceforth, he continuously began to publish his poems in Indreni, Pragti, Rup
Rekha, etc. According to eminent critic Ishwor Baral who also compiled and edited Mohan Koirala's poem namely Mohan Koirala ka Kavitaharu (Poems of Mohan
Koirala), Koirala wrote most of his poems after the revolution of 1950.
We often find him linking with TS Elliot accusing him of writing obscure and verbose poems. But the fact remains that he never imitated Elliot and; he did set his own
new trend in Nepali poetry which can be justifiably termed modern, both in themes and style. "TS Elliot is a world poet, and his style is different from others. I may have
been influenced by him sometimes; however, I can't say that my whole poetic career has been influenced by him. Since my poetry writing is about to complete fifty years,
how can I say I have been influenced by him all over these years. My poems like Suryadan and Nadi Kinarka Majhi (Boatmen of the River bank) have Nepali theme
and conception. Is it rational to justify my whole career only from the angle of TS Elliot," he refuted allegation.
His book Nadi Kinarka Majhe has been awarded the prestigious Madan Puraskar in 1982. And, he received Sajha Puraskar two times for his book Mohan Koirala ka
Mohan Koirala- Architect of Modern Nepali Poetry