Yubaraj poudel
Title: The colours of spring
Author: Kuma Raj Subedi
Year of publication: 2023
Publisher: Sahityapost
Genre: Poetry
Kuma Ray Subedi’s ‘The Colours of Springs’ is an artistic expression of life and nature tinged with both delicacy and strength of the bitter reality that humans experience in their journey. The book is a soft literary voice suggesting not only to seize the day ‘Carpediem, Lady’ – but also to capture the moment “negotiating the precious price of sublime blunder.” The notion of fleeting youth is fantasized with the textual emotions of the words. When ‘the emotions are on sale in the digital world, words become nude and poetry is born.” Such a romantic literary version in the book’s skillfully blended with the masculine dominance -he has an extra piece of flesh- which is next revolted with a threat ‘Don’t Squeeze me.’ The revolting voice of the female goes in vain; she is raped. The poem ‘Manifold Death’ is a touchy manifestation of how a lady in the Hindu society of the South eastern developing countries like Nepal is entangled in the vicious circles of sufferings in attempt to raise voice against male chauvinism.
This anthology fundamentally revolves round the ups and downs men have to face in life. The poet explores the vices and follies of the 21st century multicultural society with the precision of diction. Life is compared with the uncertain way that a rolling stone moves although its destination is predictable. Plight of the citizens of economically backward and politically corrupted nations is yet another portrayal in the book. Invaluable dreams of the youths to earn are assassinated and their identity is painted with multiple colours. The book also includes the sweet but false words of the government expressed through the press release to provide urine warmth to the poor victims.
Likewise, the poet’s own memory of school days, value of paying tribute to the martyrs equally contributes to cast the readers into the depth of the book.
Having gone through the poems, it’s not so difficult to assume for conscious readers that problems don’t come alone, they always come with solutions together and we need to unfold them. Some of the problems are well unfolded in the poems Time itself is the greatest healer of our troubles and calling for peace and realizing the significance of the nature can minimize our sickness of heart to a greater extent. Such a life changing way is beautifully portrayed by the title of the book itself because spring is the season that almost all the living beings like and the colours in it make human life meaningful. A number of current and cross-current issues of cultural diversity make this book a centre of attraction for the readers.
As a post-modern piece of literature, this anthology puts many established notions under eraser. Contrary to centrality, it is an appeal to its readers to advocate ‘plurality of meanings.’ The persona in ‘Death of an Author’ dies after putting the final full stop in his creation, followed by the birth of the readers. Fragmentation and indeterminacy of meanings is dominant in most of the poems. The poet takes place of a painter and words are used as brush and colour. Because of this attribute, it can explore the depth of human psyche…
Collapse of generic division is another remarkable feature of this book. Readers can have a smell of heterogeneity. Language of ordinary people is used with fragmented sentences – “More black crows soar around and destroy the crops’ although the ‘witty false man sets the scarecrow up to protect his crops.’
The poems in this book are full of figures of speech. Simile and metaphor are sufficiently used – like a splash of water’, ‘reek like a rotten corpse, ‘ my mother’s face is my safe heaven’ and so on. Likewise, hyperbole, imagery, refrain, alliteration, symbols and personification increase the intensity of the poems in the book.
Those who want to explore not only the outer world but also their inner self for the discovery of hidden pleasure in life, they must read this collection of poems at least once. You will be delighted even in the preliminary stage of mystery and ambiguity. It will certainly win you. Don’t miss; hurry up!
