R.I.P. Madhav Prasad Ghimire, Nepalese National Poet

We are sad to learn of the death on Tuesday of Nepal's national poet, Madhav Prasad Ghimire. He was 101 years old. "Though he dabbled in plays and essays," write Timothy Aryal and Srizu Bajracharya at the Kathmandu Post, "Ghimire’s forte was chhanda poetry, a style of rhythmic poetry that has a fixed meter." More: 

Perhaps the most iconic of his works is the widely acclaimed Gauri, an epic ode on his late wife.

“He was shattered and grief-stricken when his first wife died and he wrote an eponymous elegy in her remembrance, full of pathos and emotions, which I think people will remember him for," said Abhi Subedi, a professor of English at Tribhuvan University, poet, playwright and linguist.

Subedi, who is also a columnist for the Post, has translated Ghimire’s works into English.

Ghimire was born on September 23, 1919 at Putsun in Lamjung district. Later, he moved to Durdedada village in Bhimphedi, Makwanpur, to pursue further studies in Sanskrit. As a child, he was very studious, he’s said, and it didn’t take him long to publish his first literary work.

Learn more via the Kathmandu Post.