Yuyutsu RD Sharma

It is not an everyday encounter. You receive a call from Yuyutsu who is in Paris for a reading of his poems at Shakespeare & Company on Monday, and is taking the train to London at 6pm on Tuesday. He has some time and drops by.

It is not an everyday encounter. You receive a call from Yuyutsu who is in Paris for a reading of his poems at Shakespeare & Company on Monday, and is taking the train to London at 6pm on Tuesday. He has some time and drops by.

His CV is impressive: Recipient of fellowships and grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, Ireland Literature Exchange, The Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature, The Foundation for the Production and Translation of Dutch Literature and Sahitya Academy, National Academy of Letters, Yuyutsu has published seven poetry collections, including, The Lake Fewa and a Horse: Poems New (Nirala, 2005) and www.WayToEverest.de: A photographic and Poetic Journey to the Foot of Everest, (Epsilonmedia, Germany, 2006) with German photographer Andreas Stimm; recently he published a translation of Irish poet Cathal O’ Searcaigh in Nepali in a bilingual collection entitled, Kathmandu Poems: Selected and New, 2006. He has translated and edited several anthologies of contemporary Nepali poetry in English and launched a literary movement, Kathya Kayakalpa (Content Metamorphosis) in poetry.

The Library of Congress has nominated his recent book of Nepali translations entitled Roaring Recitals; Five Nepali Poets as Best Book of the Year 2001 from Asia under the Program, A World of Books: International Perspectives.

Yuyutsu’s own work has been translated into German, French, Italian, Hebrew, Spanish and Dutch. Currently in Europe, he edits Pratik, A Magazine of Contemporary Writing and contributes literary columns to Nepal ’s leading daily, The Himalayan Times. He has completed his first novel.

He sits down for tea and unpacks his books, of which there are an impressive collection. He could be traveling salesman, but there is something kind and profound in him, and his true self he only reveals in his poems, as you can read and see on his website.