A Linguist with a Poet's Heart: a Note on P.J. Mistry's Poems
Jagdish Dave
SOAS Language Centre University of London
PJ. Mistry (Purushottambhai to his Gujarati friends) has established himself as alinguist. He has lectured at universities in different countries, presented papers at International conferences and made notable contribution to Gujarati nguistics through his publications. At a recent session held in England jointly by the Gujarati Literary Academy and the Bedford Mitra Mandal, which I had he privilege to chair, he delivered a paper which brought to light many lesser known aspects of Gujarati linguistics for the first time.
Despite his scholarly looks, it came as a surprise to many when he read one of his poems at the above-mentioned meeting in Bedford. Later I recalled he had his poems published in the early '50's. Even at that early date he made his mark as a poet, with his work being chosen and republished in the newly itiated collection, Poems of the Year, in 1953. His poems passed the scrutiny and critical eye of the editor--the eminent poet and critic, Suresh Dalal--and continued appealing to him since they were selected for the volumes for the following years till the collection ceased publication in 1957.
Mistry's poems have appeared in publications with considerable reputation, such as Kavita, Kavilok, Kumar, etc. Acceptance by these distinguished publications itself signifies the high quality of these poems. The critics also began taking note of him as one of the small group of promising young poets.
As recently as 1994, two of his poems appeared in Amerikavyo, a selection of poems of Gujarati poets based in the USA. Four years later a special issue published on the occasion of the first Gujarati Literary Conference New York opened its poetry section with a poem by Mistry. His poem is also among the selected diasporic Gujarati poems published in the special November 2001 issue of Opiniyana, a Gujarati monthly published from London. Another of his poems is featured in the special 200th issue, a compilation of poems singled out from the previous 199 issues starting in 1967, of the bimonthly Kavita (Poem) from Bombay.
Gujarati poetry has a rich tradition dating from the 15th Century and starting with Siddha Hemchandracharya. The 'medieval' period, from the 15th to the 19 Centuries, was dominated by religious and philosophical poets like Narsinh Mehta, Mirabai, Bhalan, Akho, Premanand and Dayaram. With the 20th Century emerged a different poetic sensitivity through seminal poets like Narmad, Dalpatram, Nanalal, Thakore, Umashankar, Sundaram, Niranjan,
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