Marathi poet late Arun Kolhatkar. He is famous for his poems written in Marathi and English languages. His poems found humour in many everyday matters. He exerted profound influence on modern Indian poets. His first collection of English poetry, Jejuri won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize in 1977. ‘The Bus’ is a fine poem from epic Jejuri. In this poem the A. Kolhatkar describes its journey by State Transport Bus in Maharashtra. The poet and other pilgrims are going to Jejuri to visit the temple of God Khandoba.
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 poetic 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’.
