English translation of my poems

(These translations were done with help of Prof. Tom Montgomery and I am very thankful to him)

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1.   My Share of Words

In a deep cavern of oblivion
I search for my share of alphabets
As if in flicker of a firefly
someone is struggling to create Zardozi craft*
I fumble:
which one a golden string
and which is a cotton thread?
I am entangled in a silken cobweb

In somnolence I wonder through the night
And ask an ancestral mother of three million years past:
How she weaved images into speech
How often she was at a loss of expression
And how often she created new morphemes

Between dreams and wakefulness
I try to hear syllables
I try to decipher words
I try to describe images
Pursuing glimmers in the depth of memory
Often I falter
Sometimes I take wings
And in the process I decay
Bit by bit
Day by day.
********
*Zardozi  (a very special embroidery done with gold string)

2.       Corvallis Sky in Autumn

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It’s early morning

In between the rising sun and setting moon

Chirping-trilling-honking flocks speedily go by like arrows

Astonishing the head of one below

As momentarily the sky is full of birds

The birds seems to inviting us

Lets go across these continents

Lets go across these oceans

Migration is a part of life

Not searching for a destination of a sort

But only fulfillment for an adventurous soul

Perhaps there is a thirst for unseen worlds

or hope of unforeseen possibility

This earth is still full of wonders

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3.  Flight

At first

The wings of mind beat

And an old saying emerges

“Look up and live”

The mind first falls into deep gorges

Before it attains height

And finally comes the flight

****

4.  Looking Back

All of a sudden
A streak of bliss illuminates a dark canvas,
At the end of a narrow street
I catch a momentary glimpse of hope
Somewhere in a deep gorge
A suspension bridge swings briefly
Now and then I sniff fennel in the air
And deep in my mind Raga “Peelu” plays

A blithe eagle takes off in the wind
Gradually a partial rainbow forms
in the midst of drizzle
A little girl wishing for ripples
keeps dropping pebbles in a pond
Just now I see a fish go by

The memories come and go like a breeze
creating dunes
I randomly encounter
ephemeral tranquility
ephemeral turmoil
at odd times
in strange locales
******

5.  Motherhood

A mother weaves a face, smiles

imagining a stranger taking  shape inside her

the first petal of a lily unfurls

numerous sunflowers turn in chorus

And a monarch butterfly gently flaps her wings

A mother weaves a face, smiles

within her inner self  

A small rivulet descends the side of a cliff

and flows toward unknown destiny

At the core of her soul the bond with humanity revitalizes

And the sense of shared existence imbibes in nectar

A mother, an immigrant, dark skinned woman

An outcast from the predetermined molds

is wandering in the midst of her time and claiming space

Escaping from hatred, malice, and baseness

somewhere in the New York of  2003

Hearing FOX, BBC, CNN

Hearing Freespeech, Zinn, Azeez, Arundhati

A mother weaves a face, smiles

Routinely falters hearing a sigh of another

And slowly whispers a prayer

“May life be possible, may life be beautiful

for everyone born from a mother’s womb”

A mother weaves a face, smiles

Within the father flows an unknown spring of care and caution

And wrapped within it the expectant mother counts her days.

***