Notable writers of the Hindi language, best remember for translation of the popular English song "We Shall Overcome" into Hindi, Girijakumar was born on August 22, 1919, in Guna district of Madhya Pradesh. Mathur started his career in literature in 1934 in the Braj language. Greatly influenced by authors such as Makhanlal Chaturvedi and Balkrishna Sharma 'Navin', he published his first anthology, 'Manjir' in 1941.
Education
The Poet's Education took place in Jhansi and Lucknow. His father Devicharan Mathur was a schoolteacher and was fond of literature and music. He also used to write poems.
Career in Hindi literature
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Girijakumar's wrote the introduction of his first poetry collection 'Manjeer' published in 1941 with Suryakant Tripathi 'Nirala', a legendary poet and novelist.
His work begins with reactions from the events of World War II and is influenced by the ongoing national freedom movement in India. Girijakumar is one of the seven poets of 'Tarsaptak', edited and published by Agyeya in 1943. Experimentalism can be seen in his works here.
Apart from poetry, he has also been writing on solo drama, criticism, lyric-poetry and classical subjects. He has published poetry collections such as Mandar, Manjeer, Nash and Nirman, Dhoop Ke Dhan, Shilapankh Chamkile etc. and volume poetry Prithvi kalpa.
Translation of We shall overcome
It was during his service in Doordarshan that mathur translated the popular gospel and civil rights movement song "We shall overcome" into Hindi as "Ham Honge Kaamyab".
It was sung by a female singer of the Doordarshan orchestra and the music was arranged by Satish Bhatia using Indian musical instruments.
This Hindi rendition was released in 1970 as a song of social upliftment and was often broadcast by Doordarshan in the 1970s and 1980s. Doordarshan at that time was the only television station of India, and this song was especially played on days of national significance.
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