Yash Nandan was born in what was then British India and lived after the Partition in Delhi until 1964 when he emigrated to the United States and settled in Princeton, New Jersey. Primarily self-made and self-educated, he studied to earn degrees from universities in India, the United States, and finally his Ph.D. in sociology at the Sorbonne in France. Ever since his first stint as a coolie at a railway station in Punjab (India), he has lived a rich and faceted life: a teacher, a professor, and an entrepreneur as a diamantine. During these "golden years" of retirement from careers that he followed to redefine and reinvent himself, he is engaged in a program of reading and writing and trying to catch up with his lost past. Previously he has published Asia and Twice Born Prometheus, an epic poem. The present Pigeon English Collection of Poems is his second book of poetry. Both the works are included in the series Bhavan Book University. Last Hindu Fortress: Memoir to Honor History, a narrative of the British India's strategic and troublesome frontier, is forthcoming.

Were it not for the unfolding conducive circumstances, the miscellany of poems I started writing some years ago would have remained buried in my files, collecting dust, the ink fading on the sere paper. Maybe it is not the person who creates and recreates, maybe our creative acts and ordinary actions are circumstanced. Be it as it may, the publication of my epic poem was a catalyst for this collection. I acknowledge this as a stimulus for I do not sit in my perch to write poetry alone. There is always something on the burner, be it poetry, fiction or non-fiction. Mind is perhaps the most precious gift bequeathed to us by nature. Wasting it is awful.

Sources in this collection are quite diverse, both in terms of space and time. Being nestled in this ambiance of intellectual effervescence is a reward that enriches the perspective of a poet and writer with an open mind and wide academic interest. Add to this institutional resource that advances learning the rich tapestry of experiences that is woven into one's life: trials and tribulations, humility and indignity poured by cronies and bigots, and the endowment of a most brilliant karma to confront them. All this intensity and episodes add up to a jolly ride on Pegasus for a visit with Apollo by his invitation.

Short Verse

Once this collection of poems advanced, either in writing or in outline, the progress henceforth made quite clear the pattern of organizing it within the scheme of four parts. Part One is devoted to epigrams of classical and contemporary literary forms but I prefer the term slender verse or short verse. Part Two is comprised of one long poem on a diamond enveloped in Hindu myth and a long adventuresome history. Through the facets of this diamond, India's history unfolds in sketches. Part Three includes essentially autobiopoetry, a neologism. Since the above two parts comprehend a large part of this collection, they have been discussed separately in the following pages as my introduction on the themes. With the exception of "Halcyon Days" and a few other compositions which may have been included in Part Three, Part Four is a miscellany of poems needing no special attention in this explanatory section. However, the reader is made aware of this deposition.

From the very beginning, I made a self-conscious decision to compose what in literature is known as epigram which has its roots in the archaic Greek inscription, primarily an elegy or an epitaph for sepulchral occasions but also as dedication to gods. After the archaic period, inscription evolved into a literary genre of epigram to celebrate events and affairs as diverse as marriage, love, gods, nature, victory or defeat in a battle, man's delight in wine and woman, and his flaming desire for boys. An epigram must be distinguished from a gnome, the former being solemn and satirical while the latter is moralistic, didactic and with a pitch that appeals to the ordinary intellect of a common person for its proverbial vein. Aphorism, proverb, and statement of evident truth are part of rhetoric. If imbued with moral overtones, gnomes and apothegms may belong to ethics and religious teachings. An epigram may not necessarily embody a moral precept, it may not be an aphorism or apothegm either. Whereas the classicists in the West exemplified their talents in epigrams, the East and the genius of Sanskrit literature is revealed through gnomic verse from the Vedas onward.