Five More Poems
Translation : Gurshminder Singh Jagpal
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.