Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star! – I am grown up man. Completed academics. Married with children. Seen few countries and worked in some countries. I consider myself well-learned. I can write few sentences, keep feeding my website (www.shitwhole.com), and also keep filling the journals which I passionately write. I was contended. I was happy. This idyllic existence shattered today. Suddenly I found myself completely nude in every way. The realization that I do not know anything dawned. All these days, I was arrogant, stupid and self-centered.
Allow me to tell you why. I am sure, you would have heard age old Nursery Rhyme – in fact we all grew up with reciting it; this recitation made parents happy, and the future generations will continue to learn this nursery rhyme:
Twinkle, twinkle little star!
How I wonder what you are,
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
Today I asked myself: Is it the full nursery rhyme? Like a stupid fool I said to self that the above four lines constitute the full nursery rhyme. Today, at this age I am relearning it. No teacher will ever teach the complete one; Parents are too happy if their child recites the first four lines, they are not bothered any further! The question is why no one has tried to ask themselves if these four lines constitute the full poem. The full nursery rhyme? I am grateful that I am learning it today.
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star!
How I wonder what you are,
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
When the glorious sun is set,
When the grass with dew is wet,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, Twinkle all the night.
In the dark-blue sky you keep,
And often through my curtains peep,
For you never shut your eye
Till the sun is in the sky.
As you bright and tiny spark,
Guides the traveler in the dark,
Though I know not what you are,
Twinkle, Twinkle little star!
I have decided to learn this poem, while understanding it. I shall remember so that I can recite it whenever I want! Now another question: Who wrote this poem? In which year this poem was written?
In the book titled “POEMS THAT EVERY CHILD SHOULD KNOW” – A selection of best poems of all times for young people – Edited by MARY E. BURT, Published by GROSSET & DUNLP (1904), it is stated that the author of this poem is ANONYMOUS. Anonymous means – the person who wrote this poem does not want to be identified. Hence, we can never know who the real author is and when it was written! Therefore, I am contended with the fact that at least know the full poem. Twinkle, Twinkle little star!
About the Author
Dr. K. Raja Gopal Reddy is a seasoned internationally qualified Insurance professional. What you are reading here, may not answer all the questions we have, but has the absolute power of asking unsettling questions which increase the interest in the strange world, and show the contradictory wonders lying just below the surface of the commonest things of life. Look at this disturbing but beautiful thought of Friedrich Nietzsche “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him”.
Dr. Reddy can be reached at: raja66gopal@gmail.com
