A MATTER OF LONG TIME

As the bear hides in the Tuniki tree in a vale

Desire is asleep in the body

All the villagers are running towards the dale
To drive out the bear ---
But what about this body?

Nets cast all around Spies set on already

It’s not scared Doesn’t move It expels its own self, rebels

It’s impossible ever to escape
The passion is familiarized
To run away It never resists

Better it’s to concealIn the body rather than revolt
As it is an ease of habitual virtue

 ***

(Tuniki tree a kind of tree with a black bark. it is also called beedi tree of which the dried leaves are rolled into small cheap cigars called beedis)


Telugu original : OKAPPATI MATA …by kavi yakoob
Translation by Jagathi

Sleeplessness

Sleep keeps away from me

Haven’t I told you
Not to keep sleep with you only
Lest I’m rendered slumberless

I search for you a lot but to no avail
I contemplate taking from you the forty winks
By cowing or coaxing
But never would you condescend
To give me the needed sleep

Like a lotus at the centre of an open lake
A relaxed being you are in a quiet cottage.
You are a soul ensconced blithely and cozily
amid many a cool touch

Getting roasted
In the scorching heat of the sun
I stay here far away from you.
When I lay immersed here
In the thoughts about you
How can I get any sleep


Original (Telugu):  Yakoob
Translated by:        Elanaaga

Should Have Something Left For Us

A place, a native town
Or an acquaintance at least
Is needed to frequent on and off

When words shatter and melt
Purports scatter, scare and wilt
And thoughts vanish into distant horizons
A habitation is needed
To learn words anew

When desires disappear, making body a lean stick
Rarefied reflections render heart an empty shell
And every route is shut
Leaving pitch darkness all around
A sprinkle of greeting is needed
To sprout anew

A veritable life of your own
To enter at your will is needed.
Not as a mere figure carrying lungi and banian 
In the present, oscillating into past and future
Should one live.
From the sickening payments of monthly bills
And the senseless smiles of sham stratagems
Should one sail smoothly into pithy life

Like a fluttering finch
Entering its nest at least
Should one embrace life with finesse.
Quench we should, our thirst
By parting the water of a flowing rivulet.
Rise we should, from the relics of a  bee
Waiting on the lump of wax
Thrown after squeezing the oozing honeycomb.
To sink into yourself
To smoulder and be left as yourself
A person should at least be available to you.


Original (Telugu):  Yakoob
Translated by:        Elanaaga

An Exposition of Peace

The peace we long for
swings between
The point of a bayonet and the heart beat
Like a dying man's last breath
The peace we long for
Lies on the bed.
The peace we long for is a temple, a masjid,
an explosion, a cease-fire, an ending, a continuance
An injured song, a thunder of lightning
dropped, snapped from heavens.
It's like the foot of a banned poem
Buried in the gullet.
Amidst the sonorous expositions of peace
By the bearded Mullahs and Sadhus
The peace we long for gasps for breath.
.
The peace we long for
is lame like the gait
of a dog that broke his leg.
.
Pity!
We have to get on
With whatever amount of peace
The state rations us
Collecting it in our bags.

*Translated by Naudury Murthy

Bodies Reverised

A rivrer……

Born anew on the earth

Springing out from the clefts

Gurgling to the frontiers of earth and sky

The breeze humming afresh

Nigh lingering for a new language

Clambering onto the dreams

Night’s eyes weary out

New script

New dream

New river

Minutes in search of synonyms

Slumber carried away

In a hooded cart

Tired earth

 canopied with mushrooms

Two liquiscent bodies

In the horizon

The brooks running to eternity

Two breaths…

Melting into ragas,

Reign the night

Jus two spectators

Night steals a look

Night drags on

Dawn stalled

Even the sun sleeps.

                                                                                                Telugu: Digantamlo Nadi

                                                                                                         English: K.S.P.Roy

MY SOUL

Like a warm hand
on my weary shoulder
you came close to me .

In a dreamless night
you became a balmy poem.
For days sans a wrap
you have given a shape.
Shielding a heroic poet
you infused inspiration , imagination.
On a wounded body
you landed as a bird with healing touch .
Like spring that courted the earth
You are a multi- splendoured smile.
You became a butterfly
far beyond evolutionary dynamics.

You are the pollen of life with an amazing fusion of feelings on observing --- thorny plants, Caltrops, leeches that drained my blood in Nallavagu , nuances of songs composed on machans , tasty reeds and swinging ears of jowar corn .

For a sharpened chisel like me
you are an abiding aspiration.
During the nights I slept
you softly spread as tender youth .
Across contemplative tamarind tree
you are my sap green future
painted by nature .

You are my soul who
showed me what I am
placing me before a mirror.

You are a loving lightning
seen in the wrinkles of my mother's face .
Like my father's humming tune
ringing in ears,
you glided into my inner core.

So much compassion
So much love
So much warmth you shower!

The moment you stepped
into threshold of my life
stretching your right foot
I shuddered with a singular self-confidence.

With the sense you lent
to dreams blooming in my heart
I have become a poet !

[Translated from Telugu by T.S.Chandra Mouli & B.B.Sarojini from the volume Sarihaddurekha , 2002,poem titled KuDi Kaalu,p-14-15]

follow this link for my poem in "The Shared Mirror"

http://roundtableindia.co.in/lit-blogs/blog/2010/05/06/awwal-kalima/