Arun Kolatkar

Arun Balkrishna Kolatkar (Marathi: अरुण बालकृष्ण कोलटकर) (1 November 1932 – 25 September 2004) was an Indian poet who wrote both in Marathi and English.

His poems are known for expressing the humour in everyday life.

Kolatkar is the only Indian poet besides Kabir to be featured on the World Classics titles of New York Review of Books.

After graduation in 1949, he joined S. B. College of Arts, Gulbarga, from which he graduated in 1957.

His Marathi poems of the 1950s and 1960s are written

"in the Bombay argot of the migrant working classes and the underworld, part Hindi, part Marathi, which the Hindi film industry would make proper use of only decades later".

For instance, consider the following, which intersperses Hindi dialect into the Marathi:

To match this in his English translation, he sometimes adopts "a cowboy variety":

In Marathi, his poetry is the quintessence of the modernist as manifested in the 'little magazine movement' in the 1950s and 1960s.

His early Marathi poetry was radically experimental and displayed the influences of European avant-garde trends like surrealism, expressionism and Beat generation poetry.

These poems are oblique, whimsical and at the same time dark, sinister, and exceedingly funny.

Some of these characteristics can be seen in Jejuri and Kala Ghoda Poems in English, but his early Marathi poems are far more radical, dark and humorous than his English poems.

His early Marathi poetry is far more audacious and takes greater liberties with language.

However, in his later Marathi poetry, the language is more accessible and less radical compared to earlier works.

His later works Chirimiri, Bhijki Vahi and Droan are less introverted and less nightmarish.

They show a greater social awareness and his satire becomes more direct.

Bilingual poet and anthologist Vilas Sarang assigns great importance to Kolatkar's contribution to Marathi poetry, pointing to Chirimiri in particular as "a work that must give inspiration and direction to all future Marathi poets".

In 1953, he married Darshan Chhabda (the sister of well-known painter Bal Chhabda).

The marriage was opposed by both families, partly because Kolatkar was yet to sell any of his paintings.

His early years in Mumbai were poor but eventful, especially his life as an upcoming artist in the Rampart Row neighborhood, where the Artists' Aid Fund Center was located.

Around this time, he also

translated Tukaram into English.

This period of struggle and transition has been captured in his Marathi poem 'The

Turnaround':

After many years of struggle, he started work as an art director and graphic designer in several advertising agencies like Lintas.

By the mid-60s he was established as a graphic artist, and joined an eclectic group of creatives headed by the legendary advertising professional Kersy Katrak.

It was Katrak, himself a poet, who pushed Kolatkar into bringing out Jejuri.

Kolatkar was, in advertising jargon, a 'visualizer'; and soon became one of Mumbai's most successful art directors.

He won the prestigious CAG award for advertising six times, and was admitted to the CAG Hall of Fame.

By 1966, his marriage with Darshan was in trouble, and Kolatkar developed a drinking problem.

This faded after the marriage was dissolved by mutual agreement and he married his second wife, Soonu.

His first collection of English poetry, Jejuri won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize in 1977.

His Marathi verse collection Bhijki Vahi won a Sahitya Akademi Award in 2005.

An anthology of his works, Collected Poems in English, edited by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, was published in Britain by Bloodaxe Books in 2010.

Trained as an artist from the J. J. School of Art, he was also a graphics designer.

Kolatkar was born in Kolhapur, Maharashtra, where his father, Tatya Kolatkar, worked as an officer in the education department.

He lived in a traditional Hindu extended family, along with his uncle's family.

He has described their nine-room house as "a house of cards. Five in a row on the ground, topped by three on the first, and one on the second floor.".

The floors had to be "plastered with cowdung every week".

He attended Rajaram High School in Kolhapur, where Marathi was the medium of instruction.