THINNER THAN A CRESCENT
— Vidyapati
Summary In English : Vidyapati was a great Maithili poet. He was devoted to lord Krishna and Shiva. His discretion of the lord and his beloved Radha are vivid and at the same time lucid. This proves the excellence of his poetic ginius. Many of his poems carry the description of the different moods love between Lord Krishna and Radha. The lord could not meet Radha for a long time and Radha due to separation passed anxious moments and grew pale and weak. One of her friends finds pity on her and goes to Lord Krishna on her own to report about the agony of Radha. This has been nicely interwoven by the poet through this poem.
This poet says that separation of Radha from her lord Krishna made her pass awful time. She kept on shadding tears and tears from her eyes and those years turned into a river. She is also confused and is unable to decide about the future action, she should take. The friend of Radha starts reporting the agony of her friend to Lord Krishna in this way.
She says Radha is so disturbed that if you ask her one thing, the would give a reply of something. They feel that joy and happiness will return in the life of Radha but now they have lost hopes altogether and have left consoling her.
Now says the friend to the Lord that ultimately I had to rush to you to give you a call. You know Krishna, Radha is growing thinner and thinner each day and one day she may become thinner like Cresent [ Size of moon on the first night in the sky during Shukla- paksha. ]
कविता का सारांश
इस कविता के रचनाकार विद्यापति एक विश्व विख्यात मैथिली कवि है। उनकी गणना भारतीय साहित्य -संसार के एक प्रतिनिधि भक्त कवियों में की जाती है । कृष्ण और शिव के प्रति आस्था को इन्होंने अपनी कविता के माध्यम से उजागर किया है।
कृष्ण और राधा के प्यार को विद्यापति ने अपनी इस कविता का आधार बना बनाया है। राधा, कृष्ण के प्रति प्यार के अनुरक्त हैं ।कुछ दिनों के लिए कृष्ण ,राधा को छोड़ कर चले जाते हैं । राधा, कृष्ण के विरह में व्याकुल हो जाती है। उसके हृदय में केवल कृष्ण की छवि ही बसती है और उन्हें याद करके उसकी आंखों में आंसुओं की धारा बहने लगती है। कवि ने इस कविता के राधा को इसी शारीरिक और मानसिक अवस्था का मर्मस्परशी चित्रण किया है। कुल तीन छंदों की काव्य रचना में चौदह पंक्तियाँ हैं जो मैथिली भाषा में अंग्रेजी में अनूदित है।
कवि कहता है ,अपने प्रियतम कृष्ण छोड़कर राधा की स्थिति दयनीय हो गई है। कृष्ण के विरह में उसकी आंखों से आंसू की धारा अविरल से बहती रहती है । इन आंसुओं के जल में एक नदी का रूप ग्रहण कर लिया जिसके तट पर बैठी राधा, दुःख और विरह का संताप झेल रही है। वह किंगतरव्यविमूढ़ है और उगी -सी , खोती हुयी चिंताकुल बनी दिन काट रही है।
राधा की एक सहेली राधा की स्थिति से घबराकर के पास जाती है और राधा की धनी अवस्था का वर्णन करती है। वह श्री कृष्ण को संबोधित करती हुई कहती है— राधा आपके वीराह में बैठी हुयी है । इसके वचन और उत्तर में आप एकरूपता नहीं पाएंगे उससे आप कुछ प्रश्न पूछे वह उत्तर कुछ और देती है। उसकी सखियाँ समझती हैं कि उसकी लौट आएगी और वह एक दिन समान्य और सहज हो जाएगी लेकिन हालात में परिवर्तन नहीं पा कर भी धीरज को देती है।
सहेली श्रीकृष्ण को कहती है — हे माधव! राधा दिन-प्रतिदिन किस गाय होती जा रही है । वह दिन दूर नहीं जब आकाश में शुक्ल पक्ष की प्रथम तिथि को के चांद की तरह दिखाई पड़ेगी ।उसकी काया उस चाँद से भी दुर्बल या उसकी तरह शेष रह जाएगी। अतः आप उसकी अवस्था का ख्याल कर उसकी सुध लेने के लिए वापस चलें।
GLOSSARY AND NOTES
Carve (v): काटना। Brood (v): चिंतन का ध्यान करना । Confused (Adj.): विचलित, विक्षिप्त। Banish (v): निर्वासित करना या निकालना। Cease (v): रोकना या रूकना । Creasent (n): शुक्ल पक्ष की पहली तिथी का चाँद ।
EXERCISE
A. Make small groups and discuss the following :
Q.1. How many friends do you have ? Who among them has helped you.
Ans. I have only few friends. They all are good and helpful . Most of the time we discuss about our studies and try to help each other. Sohan helps me in Maths while Arun helps others in Science. I try to help them in language particularly spelling and grammar. We try understand the difficulty of each other so that we are able to help when needed.
I don’t believe in making large number of friends. This disturbs studies, I have seen and found.
Q.2. Have you been away from your parents for a long time ? How did you feel then ?
Ans. Once I was away from my parents for more than a month. I had gone to Bangalore to say with one of my relatives who is posted over there. For few days, I enjoyed visiting the local places of tourist’s interest. It was quite educative and at the same time entertaining. She knows about my liking in food and would always make the recipe of my choice. How can I forget them?
B. Answer the following questions briefly :
Q.1. Why is Radhika Crying ?
Ans. Because she feels that Krishna has deserted her and there is no hope of meeting him again. So this feeling of loneliness has made her weep and weep.
Q.2. What two feeling of Radha have been referred to by her friend ?
Ans. The two feeling of Radha are that she does not respond properly to a query .Her replies are incoherent.
Q.3. To whom does the friends make a report ?
Ans. She makes a report to Madhav, who is the lord himself I.e., Shri Krishna.
Q.4. What do Radha’s friends believe in ?
Ans. They believe that the joy of Radha may come again and she may be all night but they that to banish hope seeing the condition of Radha.
Q.5. Why did Radha’s friends run to Lord Krishna ?
Ans. Radha’s friends rushed to Lord Krishna to report about the deterioting and poor mental and physical condition of Radha.
C.1. Long Answer Questions :
Q.1. Describe Radha’s Condition as reported by her friend ?
Ans. The friend reports and says that ” You ask her one thing, she speaks of another.” She is growing thinner and thinner day by day.
So it is very much apparent that Radha’s Condition is not well both mentally and physically.
Q.2. Why is Radha’s friends so worried ?
Ans. Radha’s friends believes that the Condition of Radha may not improve. This belief comes after the hope ” that joy may come again. ” This incoherence in the Condition of Radha gives rise to worries of her friend.
Q.3. Radha each day grown thinner/thinner than the Cresent in the sky. Comment on the use of imagery.
Ans. Imagery is the art of image making. This art is used in literature to explain a vision a seen by the writer or the poet.
Here Vidyapati has used the image of first day’s bmoon in the sky to Describe the deterioration in the physical condition of Radha. She is growing thinner and thinner day by day and the poet feels that she would look only like a crescent in the sky one day which is not far.