Homeless, yet rooted

Amarjit Chandan's latest bilingual anthology of poems (English and Punjabi), The Parrot, The Horse & The Man, evokes an imagery that is rich in symbols and reverberates with echoes of his memory, his constant awareness of time in its various dimensions and his rootedness in Punjabi culture. His poetry has a strong fragrance of Punjab and even when translated into English and other languages, retains a flavour that reflects his deep love for his roots. Chandan has always expressed through his verses an earthy mysticism that is evident in this anthology too. Memories, dreams, silence, sound and many faces of time prevail as important images and themes. This bilingual anthology will reach readers far and wide with its fine translations of the Punjabi verse into English while retaining the essence of the original with an exquisite grace.
Dreams (supnay) are a recurring motif in Chandan's verse that owes its beauty to a great extent by being blank verse.
His deep love for poetry is expressed through the poem, Writers Meet at the Temple of Apollo. "Every poem is a temple. Every poet is a toiler who builds the temple..it has no door..no windows. It opens in all the directions. The sky is its ceilng." This describes Chandan's poetry at the best.