New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, India’s National Academy of Letters, has published a book-length poem ‘Monsoon‘ by Bihar-born Indian poet-diplomat Abhay K. on the occasion of its 68th anniversary. Sahitya Akademi was established on March 12, 1954. Its logo was designed by legendary film director Satyajit Ray and Jawaharlal Nehru was its first President. The first book published by the Academy was Bhagwan Buddha by D.D. Koshambi in 1956. It was a translation from Marathi into Hindi.
Monsoon is a poem of 150 stanzas of 4 lines each (quatrain/ruba’i ) that commences its journey in Madagascar and follows the path of the monsoon invoking the rich flora and fauna, languages, cuisine, music, monuments, landscapes, traditions, myths and legends of the places through which monsoon travels and acts as a messenger to carry the poet’s message from Madagascar to his beloved in Srinagar in the Himalayas.
Also read: Kalidasa’s works find a new lease of life through poet Abhay K’s translations
Monsoon originates in Mascarene High near Madagascar in April and journeys across the Indian Ocean and the Indian subcontinent to reach the high Himalayas in June every year before retreating again to Madagascar after September.
Monsoon introduces the reader to the rich beauty and splendour of the islands of Madagascar, Reunion, Mauritius, Seychelles, Mayotte, Comoros, Zanzibar, Socotra, Maldives, Sri Lanka, and Andaman & Nicobar and the Western Ghats, Aravalis, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Sundarbans, West Bengal, Bihar, Sikkim, Bhutan, Nepal, Tibet, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir Valley, their flora and fauna, cuisine, festivals and monuments as monsoon travels through these places. It weaves the Indian Ocean islands and the Indian subcontinent into one poetic thread.
Dr Katherine Schofield, co-editor of Monsoon Feelings and senior lecturer at King’s College London writes -“Abhay K.’s Monsoon is an extraordinarily lush work, full of multisensory textures of the monsoon as it leaps across the Indian Ocean. It’s almost edible, if that is not too strange a thing to say, but the sensations it evokes are as much visceral as they are imaginative.”
Poet Pritish Nandy notes- “Abhay K.’sMonsoon is simply magical. Loved the sheer beauty of it all. The read transported me to another world. He is truly an amazing poet”, while Irish poet Gabriel Rosenstock says- “There is a lushness and unapologetic voluptuousness in Abhay K.’s Monsoon which reminds us strongly of the immortal ancients.”
Poet Abhay K. says -“Translating Kalidasa’s poems Meghaduta and Ritusamhar
Abhay K. is the author of ten poetry books including Monsoon (Sahitya Akademi, India, 2022) The Magic of Madagascar (L’Harmattan Paris, 2021), The Alphabets of Latin America(Bloomsbury India, 2020), and the editor of The Book of Bihari Literature (
– global bihari bureau
