Sahitya Akademi

Eros And Literature: Nissim Ezekiel in Conversation with Prabhat Kumar Pandeya
Author(s): Nissim Ezekiel and Prabhat Kumar Pandeya
Source: Indian Literature, Vol. 39, No. 3 (173) (May - June 1996), pp. 156-159
Published by: Sahitya Akademi
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23336166 .
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INTERVIEW

Eros AndLiterature
Nissim zekiel
zehiel
Prabhat

PK

: What

NE

erotic
the

is

ofcourse

related

sexual/sensual.

intercourse,
so.

by the erotic?

Is it different

sexual/sensual?

: The
on

uuith

Kumar Pandeya

do you mean

from

in Conversation

The

But

to

it is not

and

dependent

which can be only physical,

erotic-sensual

not

may

to sexual

limited

even

or largely

insist

on

the

sexual act as the culmination

of naked intimacy.
fulfil in its
It may be largely, if not completely,
own

forms

of

expression.

PK

: Do you think loVe poetry must be erotic? Or there

NE

: Not all love poetry need

can

at

be

love

without

poetry

eroticism.

eroticism?

be erotic, but it may hint

Romanticism

often

leaves

it

out

of

PK

the images used to express admiration,

apprecia
tion of specific female characteristics
etc.
: Does erotic mean physicality of-love or it has wider

NE

: The

PK

: Which

NE

: I

connotation?

erotic does imply an emphasis

on physical
to
wider
but
it
can
and
develop
intimacy,
ought
connotations.

period in the history of English literature,

to you, is the richest in the erotic
according
sensibility? Please illustrate.
can't

answer

except
poems
sets

this

out

to

compile

an

from

NE

the

of

anthology

I'm sure they will be found

PK

but

question,

every

period

erotic

poems,

perhaps the Victorian has many individual

which may be identified as erotic. If one
in every historic phase

to

pre-Chaucerian

the

present

time.

: Can there be sacred eroticism and profane? If so,

what is the difference?
: Yes, there is a difference between the sacred and
to the attitude
the profane in eroticism according
and

values

projected

in

the

relevant

poems.

To

think, feel and describe sexual impulses purely or

largely in physical terms is to be profanely erotic.

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To

to arrive
the physical
is not necessarily
go beyond
at the sacred. The presence of the sacred suggests
immediately
of life and of love. Without that, eroticism,
a whole philosophy

even

PK

NE

PK
NE

PK

NE

when

not

profane,

cannot

be

characterised

as sacred.

That

the sexual though rooted in it.

specific quality transcends
: Is there a place for the erotic in religious or devotional
poetry?
I have in mind "Song of Songs" from the Old Testament
and
Tohn Donne.
And also some devotional
poets of Sanskrit and
Hindi.
: Some religious or devotional
includes the
poetry undoubtedly
erotic. The spirit of such poetry, as in the examples
you men
tion, is very different from the profane erotic or romantic. It

includes the erotic to intensify its religious/devotional

totality.
: Who according
to you is the best erotic poet, living or dead?
Please refer to some titles.
: I have never read and enjoyed erotic poetry to locate "the best
erotic poet, living or dead."
To answer such a question,
I'd
have to do a lot of rereading
and even research.
: Do you think that the erotic in literature must have its origin
in the poet's/writer's
own experience,
or it can be purely
or the mixture of the two?
imaginative,
: The

writer's own experience

of the erotic is part of his erotic
but
it
has
its
certainly
poems,
imaginative element as well. Even
can
be
as though
imaginative experiences
genuine experiences,
realities directly enacted.
It is virtually impossible
to separate
the imaginative
from the lived. Even the phrase "a mixure of
the two" does

PK

NE

not help to decide the nature of the mixture

how much of it was lived and how much only imagined.
: India has a long and established
tradition of the erotic in liter
ature, religion and culture. Do you think that modern Indian
erotic poets in English have their roots in Indian cultural trad
ition? I have in mind literary archetypes/conventions/tradition,

like English poets being influenced by Latin and Italian poets.

What do you think of your own poetry in this regard?
: Some Indian poets who write in English do take an interest in
the Indian
erotic tradition.
They may not use its literary
or use them only occasionaly,
but this is for good
archetypes,
reasons. Even when they do have their roots in Indan culture,
it does not mean that their inter-cultural
can be
resources
ignored. If they are at home in the English
inevitably influenced
by all the resources
NISSIM

language,
of many

EZEKIEL

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157

they are
cultures

which are accessible

PK

to them. They have to come to terms with

these, but the process includes the Indian cultural tradition.
: What do you think of your own poetry in terms of eroticism?

NE

Is there any touch of it? Please illustrate.

: I never make claim for my own poetry in that context. It is for
my readers and critics to arrive at a fair evaluation of its Indian

PK

: Please

ness.

NE

say something about your own poetry, especially about

the pieces you like most and tell why?
: I cannot speak about my own poetry "in general",
not even
since
that
would
involve
about my "favourite"
poems,
making
claims for them. I can only hope that some of them are worth

reading, but a critic is entitled to arrive at his own judgement

are
of them. I don't argue with those whose crucial responses
I
to
of
the
After
often
all,
many
negative.
respond negatively

PK

NE
PK
NE

poets I read, Indian and others, some of them well established.

: Please speak about your creative process, e.g., how the poem
in the poet's mind, recurrance
of certain
is born and develops
of
and
fiction
etc.
facts
images, blending

: (Ezekiel did not respond to this question in his typescript)

: Is there some relationship
between
Romanticism
and Eroti
cism? Can we say that Romantic poetry is more erotic?
and Eroticism can only
: The connection
between Romanticism
be found
to

in individual

No generalisation

poems.

can do justice

it.

PK

: Must literature deal with "normal"

eroticism only or it may
how do you interpret
"abnormal"
include
too, for example
Lover"? I think it is about hair fetishism and lust
"Porphyria's

NE

: What is regarded
as "abnormal"
by some people may be "nor
of others. If they express it in poetry,
mal" in the experience
both the quality of the relevant poem and the nature of the
need to be assessed.
Ethical and
real or alleged "abnormality"
of "lust murder," but it
humanist values can hardly approve

murder.

may be justifiably treated as a possible tragic fact. As for "hair

on how the poet
fetishism" or any other, that too depends
Lover"
of
in
what
terms.
it,
by Browning
"Porphyria's
speaks
one. Taking a respect
seems to me a sad poem but a courageous

able
PK

stand

about

its erotic

abnormality

it fairly as a poem.
from judging
: Please speak freely on the subject,
158

INDIAN

LITERATURE

prevents

any other aspect

: 173

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the reader

or thought

that

comes

to

your

mind.

All I can

say here

necessary

relationship.

on

its literature

poem.

value,

about

is that it is a
"Eros and Literature"
focus of serious reader has to be

The

whatever

the

role

Every such role has its own human

NISSIM

of

Eros

in

a particular

reality and attraction.

EZEKIEL

159

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