Poets Celebrate Autumn at “Handshake of the Republics” Festival

Poets Celebrate Autumn at “Handshake of the Republics” Festival

By Ashraf Aboul-Yazid

World poets celebrated autumn in the IV International teleconference at “Handshake of the Republics” festival conducted at Kazan, Tatarstan, across the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania.

Within the framework of the IV International teleconference of the musical and poetic festival “Handshake of the Republics”, an inspiring meeting of poets from different parts of the world took place. The videoconference format became a platform for exchanging creative ideas and cultural heritage on the eve of the BRICS summit.

Moscow poets and writers gathered at the editorial office of the newspaper “KV”. The theme of the meeting was autumn – the season about which A.S. Pushkin wrote with extraordinary beauty.

Among the participants of the event, Noel Lorenz, Mrinal Kanti Ghosh from India, and Chris Chen from China, who currently lives in New Zealand.

Thanks to Yakupova Venera Abdullovna, Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper “Kazanskie Vedomosti”, President of the Association of Publishers and Distributors of Printed Products of the Republic of Tatarstan , Shamil Fattakhov, a Journalist, film director, TV presenter – who managed to translate English –Russian talks, and Olga Levadnaya , a poet, essayist, creator and project manager of the Interregional Music and Poetry Festival “Handshake of the Republics”.

Moscow writers also made up a significant part of the event. Olga Boyarinova, Boris Alekseev, Eduard Artyukhov, Olga Isida, Valery Nenashev, Svetlana Udintsova spoke to the audience, sharing their works, and Nazilya Fakhrutdinova, from Kazanskie Vedomosti Newspaper, where the virtual creative meeting was telecasted.

I started the session by translating and reciting one of the most autumn poems, written by Alexander Pushkin. I read it in Arabic. The poem firstly published in 1833, and the English version translated by Avrahm Yarmolinsky was published in, 1936:

“October comes at last. The grove is shaking

The last reluctant leaves from naked boughs.

The autumn cold has breathed, the road is freezing—

The brook still sounds behind the miller’s house,

But the pond’s hushed; now with his pack my neighbor

Makes for the distant field—his hounds will rouse

The woods with barking, and his horse’s feet

Will trample cruelly the winter wheat”.

About autumn, I connected the fall with students going back to school, and they might not fall in love with that certain season after long summer holidays”, I recalled a poem on autumn, which I wrote for children, almost two decades before:

(A Question in the Air: Autumn)

It moved the tree’s branches,

But its dance didn’t have

The sound of a rustle’s wave

Its leaves were dead thrown below on ground,

There were no roses to call a bird around.

His angry question went into the air:

“Who cut it with a blade of sword?”

But trees answered in despair:

“This was the autumn’s word!”

The meeting had poems read by the newest festival member Mrinal Kanti Ghosh from India who the 4th edition of The Republic Shakes Festival, and two of his autumn are autumn’s moon and Dark blue glowing sky:

Autumn’s moon

beautifies the night.

Spring’s day’s are

bright. The restless

and eternal sky is

beautiful and crazy.

The moon is

painting night’s clouds.

The migrants bird’s

are singing near the

pine forest. Cherry

flowers near the

garden. The autumn’s

moon are so beauty

In the garden.

Dark blue glowing sky

Dark blue glowing sky.

The winds are silent here.

Blazing sun, shadows are

merged here. Biting wind,

sunsets declining.

The deep forest are

naked here, vibrating

the lonely garden.

Biodata

Mrinal kanti ghosh is a lyricist of All India Radio Calcutta. He has written so many books on poetry, novel and story. His books are 1. Atmabairi 2. Sudhu sander jannaya (financed by West Bengal Government) 3. Jodi chole jai 4. Nairite nisarga namey 5. Ami se o somudra (novel) 6. Ekkhane akash nei 7. Suranjana (English and Bengali) 8. Chayapathe saresrip bikel 9. Bideshi kobita (English and Bengali poetry transcription) 10. Dhupchaya nir 11. Nirjan sayanhey joytshna 12. Shely. He got an award from Bangladesh He is also a musician, and plays guitar (Indian classical).

It is interesting to know that September marks the beginning of spring in New Zealand, not autumn as the participant Christine Chen said. She is a New Zealand writer, poet, translator, and newspaper editor, who won the 30th Italian “Ossi di Seppia” Award for Best Foreign Writer in 2023. Her works have been translated into nearly 20 languages and are collected by institutions such as the Royal Library of Belgium and the University of Rome. Currently sher serves as the committee member of World Poetry Movement & coordinator of Oceania. Her poem entitled (September):

Emerald blue is the lake water

Flapping its wings are the green bird

Stretching their heads out are flowers and leaves on the branches

Leading are the plum blossoms while the peach flowers following behind

Bugs hiding in the calla lily slowly crawl out of the flower tubes

Just like she steps out of her fragrant white little house

Bathing in the sunlight

In September, the spring breeze trembles as it sweeps across the mountains, lakes, and seas.

Everything she loves has arrived!

What was written has bloomed, petal after petal.

Some are delicate, some plump and round

Red, white, yellow, and purple, all igniting