Monday, November 30, 2009

FIVE POEMS FOR YOU

Five More Poems

Translation : Gurshminder Singh Jagpal


1.

Defiance

Defiance never gives birth to Rama

Thus

Is your nakedness natural or by design

Is your gloom an edict or a logic

What does this all mean?

None is a hero in a war, nor a non-hero

Nothing would be got achieved

From the war being fought in this dark lane

From the wayward footprints of these stars

You, retreat Swarnjit

The aged shadows of your past

Look at you with yearning intense

Roads …

Rivers …

Ruins …

Deserts … World

Beyond it pitch darkness

And behind it statue of the accursed Ahilya …

Ultimately

What moksha are you in search of ?

Retreat … withdraw, my Rama

Ravanas are not just ahead of you

But behind too

Glued to those shadows

Raping their desires…

Though your bones are still sturdy

But no war here

Has ever been decisive

Each day strikes the devilish sound

And thunders the Prehladi-dad.

Such is the state of confusion and mistrust

That one fails to notice

Ant marching on times aflame.

You do not know

The meaning of falling there as a drop

Where the drop loses its identity before the fall

And forgets its meaning

You too, have lost your meaning

Walking on these naked…dark and purposelessly long roads

Walking on these

Is like donning a number on one's chest

Walking on these

Does not mean more than being an average

Walking on these

Is mere getting lost

Walking on these

Is distributing chunks of self amongst these

Withdraw…

Retreat, my Siddharth

Is going astray in search of shores, any living?

Shores on either side offer nothing

Remain in these tides

Be one with these tides

Get merged into these tides

This oneness

Is Moksha

Is Nirvana.

……

2.

Pawns

On

the thorny spread

like

the innocent feet

of pawns are we driven

We

Who win

Who lose

But do not realise

the joy of victory

the disgrace of defeat

Like always

are we used

Who are we

Wherefrom have we come

Whereto are we destined

Do we know?

We merely

dye our agony in

hues of dreams

and feel contented

We either

Shut or open

our eyes

But none hears

What we tell

Why we suffer

What complexities

we consume

and

how we exist

3.

Puppet

Much have

I

danced to the directions

of your strings

Much have

the peacocks

with hollow smiles

danced on my palms

Much have

I

slaughtered self

Much blood

has flown from

my heels

Much injustice

has been inflicted

by the shameless dance

performed on my limbs

Much have

you raped

my tired desires

Have I

by remaining servile to you

for forty years

buried myself deep

into the abjectness of my values

On

the threshold of your principles

From

spinning wheel to flag

From

flag to the violence of rod

Piercing the silence

of the turbulence of strings

I have suffered a lot

Much

hypocricy has happened

to suppress self

I don’t need now

coming from

your Left and Right

the thin and selfish strands

that are direction bound

That their tongues get tied

even to fight against opression

I shall fight

for lifetime

Now that

I have suffered much

Now that

much has happened…..


4.

All indeed is Love

To

bloom, into a silver smile

brushing teeth

To

make, the eyes feast on self

bathing

To

crave, for the stammer of a child

To

pen, many a wayward thought

ensnared in the love of a word

To

soar, perched atop a white cloud

in the dark blue sky

All is love so true

similar to liking you

To

save, self from getting slipped

following the voice of some bird in

mountains

To

moisten the corners of ones eyes

listening to the line of some lyric

To

converse, with the characters

arranging the books, in disarray

To

walk, in wantoness

drenched in rain

To

journey, along the glowworns and stars

with shut eyes in darkness

All

indeed is love.

5.

Book shall awaken

Purchase - Keep

read, don't read

Place it in the rack

place and forget

if you can't read

can't remember

Let it sleep

for months, years, generations

Wait

book shall awaken

some day some moment

It shall be read

by someone

who wouldn't have purchased

this book.