Poetry has the power to heal, inspire, provoke and evoke a range of emotions, it transcends language barriers as it has a universal appeal, said Governor Biswa Bhusan Harichandan on Saturday.
He was addressing the inaugural session of the fifth international multi-lingual poets’ meet “Amaravati Poetic Prism 2019” organised by the Cultural Centre of Vijayawada and Amaravati (CCVA) in the city. He said he was happy to be part of the event mainly because poetry and writing were very close to his heart.
Citing the examples of the national anthem and the national song Jana Gana Mana and Vande Mataram respectively, Mr. Harichandan said both were a great source of inspiration to every Indian, as they evoked a sense of patriotism and pride. “Poetry speaks the language of hearts and unites the world,” he said.
Tracing the origin of the Indian poetry to the Vedic times, he said Indian poetry reflected diverse spiritual traditions and evoked some of the great poets like Kalidas, the Sanskrit poet, and his famous literary works Kumarasambhava and Raghuvansa, Sant Kabir, the 15th century mystic poet who threw light the various aspects of life and faith through his works, and Rabindranath Tagore, the recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913, largely for Gitanjali, one of his best known work.
He also referred to Ghalib, one of the most influential poets in Urdu, Persian and Arabic who started composing poetry at the age of 11.
Mr. Harichandan complimented the CCVA, established in 2015 as part of the CSR initiative by the Malaxmi Group, and its programmes like ‘Preserving Heritage for Posterity’ and the annual Multi-lingual poetry anthology.
A total of 761 poets from 86 countries participated in the event.
All the participants were felicitated before they read their poems in their respective languages. The annual multilingual poetry celebrates diversity of language where people express themselves and their culture in their own words.
Padmaja Iyenger, literary adviser to CCVA, moderated the session attended by former IAS officer and recipient of Padma Vibhushan and Jnanpith Award Sitakant Mahapatra, former Director of AP Department of Culture, prominent playwright and poet Shreekumar Varma and Papineni Shiv Shankar, who also rendered their poems.
Nancy Sahu from Delhi presented an impressive Rabindranath Natyam.
The event was supported by AP Creativity and Culture Commission, APCRDA and the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation.
