Kannada original: KAVITEYA HEJJE GURUTANU ARASI
ಕವಿತೆಯ ಹೆಜ್ಜೆಗುರುತನು ಅರಸಿ
Poet: VASANTHA BANNADI B. ವಸಂತ ಬನ್ನಾಡಿ ಬಿ
English Translation: S. Jayasrinivasa Rao
ON THE TRAIL OF A POEM
A poem doesn’t walk
with a desire
to leave its
footprints unerased.
It just walks
On the face of the full moon
Into the dark fortress of the stars
Its footsteps are so light that
it could seek out
at this moment
that black cat hiding in
the darkness.
A poem looks at the world
with a million eyes
Inside a dewdrop
with its arms and legs folded
rolling along
Inside the dark hut of the poor
sitting warmly blanketed
by the light of the little oil lamp.
The poem lived in the house
next to mine all these days
Oh, I didn’t know
it lived nearby!
It makes you cringe
You decide to probe and
there you see a few
blank sheets strewn around!
The clouds floating in the sky
are not there
the next moment
A poem is alike
How can you tie it up?
Like you tie up rice
or dates or sugar in a sack?
Who was scorched by the poem’s flames,
On whose head does it adorn as a flower,
Inside whose raided heart is it napping?
The poet has not the faintest inkling
Most people look at
the rambling poet and say,
He’s gone mad.
That his poem has already
abandoned him
is beyond anyone’s reach.
Even the poet’s
A last word:
A poem exists
Visible yet invisible
Like looking for the water
that wells out of the earth
It’s a stream
It’s a waterfall or
It’s something else
It doesn’t exist as you desire
That’s probably why
It’s called a poem
*****
No comments:
Post a Comment