Kannada original: KAVITEYA KASHTA ಕವಿತೆಯ ಕಷ್ಡ
Poet: Vasantha Bannadi B. ವಸಂತ ಬನ್ನಾಡಿ ಬಿ.
Translated into English by S. Jayasrinivasa Rao
A POEM’S DISTRESS
A poem cannot be
a flowing river
nor
a flying bird,
buried deep inside the soil
a poem’s legs are ever heavy.
A flowing river can’t be stopped,
a flying bird can’t be caught.
They would have gone far by then.
A poem, after all, is a picture inside a frame,
its arms and legs bound like a lover’s, it struggles.
A poem has a love-hate thing with the world,
yanking and flinging words,
embracing words,
cursing forgotten words,
groping for new words,
flowering realities in dreams.
The real world is changing at the speed of light.
The poem has to deal
with the world that has lost its innocence,
with the world that is soaked in cruelty.
Poetry drowns in anxiety,
poetry has to face barbarity that
neither the river
nor the bird
faces.
Despite this, a poem has
strength that the river hasn’t,
breadth that the bird hasn’t.
It puts down roots where it stands,
will go deep down into the earth,
will shower rains of solace,
will burn as fire.
It will try everything
that befits humankind’s stature.
But, for some reason,
the poem’s dream of becoming
a river, a bird
doesn’t fade.
It craves for release
even while it’s nestling in your palms.
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