Haliti's forays into the realm of dreamland and the world of fancy is at once one with the dream of Coleridge (In his poem Kubla Khan) that brought on earth an imagery unparallel in the history of English Romantic Literature. However, there is a potential margin in between the lines of fancy especially in respect of the objects enlivened on the slate of observing minds. Whereas Coleridge relied on the symbols and images bestowed by nature, Haliti relies on the philosophy and tools of love in true embodimant of Individual writ large i.e. human turned divine.

What is peculiar to Haliti is his art of delving deep into the bottom of feelings as if he is living them individually, an art seen rare in poetics. What one would construe from the lines of Dream One, the foundation of the whole poem:

'I dream- I want to die.
Brahma, almighty, embraces my dream about death.
He breathes the dream of life into me, the dream of the poet
Who about her, after five hundred earthly years,
Sings in his thoughts.
This morning I saw, still in a deep dream,
Lachy with Mirabai.
They were alike both by voice and by size
And their costumes were of the same kind:
Green eyes and the environment
Made them exactly the same'.

This is a song of life when the dream of death is rejuvenated to join the strides of life by none else than the Lord Brahma, the God of creation. This not only shows the vast mind cognition of the protagonist but also the sensibitlity and the extreme of fancy he can touch while putting down such lines. Here the poet is inflated with the sense of life that brings to life an ageold feeling of love for the lost damsel i.e. Mira Bai which becomes prettier than Lachy, a comely and beautiful character of Greek myhtology.
What is more strange about the character analogy is that for Haliti, who is a Serbian, the two ladies look alike in physical constitution, voice and even in costume. Is it the Indian link in Haliti that still governs and if not governs than influences his dreams so much so that he sees no differences in two characters, which are not only geographically but also historically and mythological apart from each other. The death here matamorphoses into the current of vivid life, a phenomenol description owing partially to the old mythological revelations and statements.
What is worth appreciating is the art of presentation of the state of time when Mirabai speaks of her love for the almighty Giridhar and when the poet illuminates the whole scenerio with the best of the tools available:


'In the castle of my lord
Millions of Stars, Moons and Suns shine!
He is the spirit which rests in spirit mine:
He is the eye in the apple of my eye.
If only my spirit and bones could be unified!
If only my love could reach my beloved!
If only my blazing heart could be pacified!
Giridhar is my faithful dear.
I’m amazed with his beauty.
As soon as the night falls
To him I go'...

Probably from the love of Mirabai gets the protagonist more inspiration to love and worship the beautiful, the God a line hard to define. The poet is so much bewitched by the beauty of Mirabai that he forgets his being and becomes one with the river of ash in the world of dead, if there any. However, the translation mars the true depiction here as the real sense doesn't turn out from the lines:

"Her unovercome pains rent
My heart precisely as an apple
And the river of ash flew
In that very moment I felt –
I belong to the world of dead,
Whose power calms down the waves.
I saw the beauty enveloped into yellow sari,
Two green eyes and a point on the forehead.
I understood why I was unable to write a song to her.
She is the song above all songs".

Nevertheless one can guage from the stanza the experience the poet undergoes while beholding Mirabai, the love of whom turns him into ashes and he becomes numb and cool just to witness a more vivid and enchanting scene of beauty wrapped in yellow. The feeling is so overwhelming that the poet expresses his inability to write a song for the one who is above elaboration.
Haliti while inviting Mira to Romanistan, the land of Romas and the land of his heart, loose the lady in the dream and looks for the land of his ancestors nicely raised on the scheme of physical beauty of Mira.

' I’m Romany poet,
I’m known over Romanistan and Barathan,
Beside the great names
My stand as well.
Mirabai,
To my home with me come
To taste the pleasure
Together there'.

Undoubtedly, Haliti being a Roma sees his image in his beloved and reverts back to the centuries to enliven the golden phase of his beloved when she surpassed all the hurdles to meet the almighty God. He invites her to meet him in the Romanistan, the land of his origin and existence where she would be getting a better status than Lachy. He takes the temporal dimension to raise the beautiful mansion of love. Take the lines:

"Your lovely breasts are
Like golden hills.
With flowered scars they are marked.
Curls have gone,
The plaits are entangled'.

Poet here intermingles the luscious charm of Bai the Bhakti into the the extremes of love and devotion. It is but hard to believe that Hailiti suaves safely in between the two banks where flows the stream of love with awful force, which is bereft of any temporal attribute. Most of the stanzas bear the direct inheritance from the lyrics of Mirabai, her hymns and the songs in her erudition and create an atmosphere charged with the dialogues of a Guru and the disciple and the former making the things easier to the latter.
Haliti should be lauded for some rich imagery that he creates in the lines:

'I saw the house.
In the house silence
And in silence – her.
On the East lives a poetess,
A beautiful woman, royally beautiful – Mirabai'.

The poet here gradually reaches the location by presenting the house in the house of silence where sits Mirabai, a point worth consideration since the locale thus set up is the outcome of great concentration and extreme of fancy, not so easy to achieve. Many more phrases make the presentation more emphatic and impressive such as 'the clouds are heavy/ the watery arrows fall', 'some thrill seizes me/ when about her I listen', 'melts my dignity and my heart', 'and the God of love/ hurting her heart move away', 'on the top of the beautiful sky dwell/ where even the eye cannot reach', ' On your white chests/
Peacefulness of the old fairytales / I’ll dream with all my being', ' I can smell the scent of burning deathbed / Made from flowers / I can hear- the love is burning', ' The escaper from funeral pile submits to him / From the blood and flesh, alone, wanderer', and ' where does my dear go?/ His paths I do not know / Just once he sent a word to me / To inflame the lighthouse of love'.
Then comes the Dream IV when poet sees the last day of Meera on earth, an elaboration filled with some queer imagery meshed in strange supernatural stuff:

'I dream her last day on the Earth.
The princess of India, a poetess whose thirsty soul
Is possessed by Yama.
My thoughts are tinkled with the nice scent
Of sandalwood mixed with the scent of beauty
Covered with Indian flowers.
I cannot see but my head hears horrors of the passers
Bending of hers hands and the ice of her soul
In the arms of Yama.
I cannot dream anymore her dream about the song
Deep into the Yamuna and the Ganges I stoop
To swallow her ash there
Before it mixes with the mud from the bottom'.

Look at the scene that Haliti unfolds as Mira lays cold in the arms of Lord Yama (The God of Death in Hindu Mythology) while his thoughts are tinkled with the nice scent of sandalwood (a fragrant wood used in pyre while cremation by Hindus) and the scent of beauty of the dead duly bedecked by the Indian flowers. The poet becomes numb as he cant see anything rather his head hears the horrors of the passers by and he stoops into the bottom of the river to swallow the ash of his love to attain ultimate unison. In the last section, however, the poet pays due heed to the advice of the Princess Mirabai :

'Don’ be mad at me and my journey,
Which is dedicated to my gods'.

and assuages himself by the eternal message left by his beloved. The last lines of the poem speak of the glory of his love that will stay there in his gray life as a candle of love and inspiration forever.

'While I yearned for her in this spelled circle
And the stars looking at me sorrowfully
Refresh slack happiness
Willingness for the love that lasts forever
And forever alights this gray life,
Won’t leave me'!

The whole dialogue turns out to be a serious thought over some metaphysical questions of love, faith, worship, God and free existence of the protagonist in the world outside and inside the fanciful thinking. It not only tells about the glory of the love and friendship that knows sacrifices only but also explores the myths of un-reined minds lamenting over nothingness of worldly desires and paving the way for the better upliftment of the soul and the concept. In all Haliti deserves kudos for such a serious discussion that not only leads to the thought sublime but also to the thought amelioration of the reader. In the ultimate the poem turns out to be a song of love metamorphosed into the sacred hymn in erudition of God, an interesting and worthy addition to English literature in general and Serbian in particular.


Prof. Dr. Harish k. Thakur