STANDING STILL, HOLDING A TELESCOPE - English translation of SUMIT METRI's DURBEEN HIDIDU NINTARE ದುರ್ಭೀನ್ ಹಿಡಿದು ನಿಂತರೆ

Dear friends, here is an English translation of another Kannada poem by our young Kananda poet SUMIT METRI ... DURBEEN HIDIDU NINTARE ದುರ್ಭೀನ್ ಹಿಡಿದು ನಿಂತರೆ ... I do hope I have managed to convey what Sumit says in the original Kannada ... Here it is, STANDING STILL, HOLDING A TELESCOPE ... 

 

Kannada original: DURBEEN HIDIDU NINTARE ದುರ್ಭೀನ್ ಹಿಡಿದು ನಿಂತರೆ

Poet: SUMIT METRI

English translation: S. Jayasrinivasa Rao

 

STANDING STILL, HOLDING A TELESCOPE

 

In the crowded bazaar

If I stand still,

holding a telescope.

how do I move on?

 

Here, 

everything done, 

seemingly nothing done,

If I stand still 

with palms joined,

Who am I? 

 

Are there different kinds 

of hunger too?

 

We ought to feel ashamed

Or we need to change

 

The flowing water

The blowing breeze

The food we eat

The glowing sun

The shining stars

No mirrors can mirror them.

 

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