Poems by Hemant Divate
|
Poetry Is the Only Medicine for Me In my daughter’s brand-new textbook I find a line from Kalidas’ Shakuntala: औषध नलगे मजला Nala is the only medicine for me I remembered learning that in school Some thirty years ago As an example of Vyanjana Coming across this line today I realised That the system has not really changed Instead, it’s turned even more rotten Over the past few decades At the very least The old fogies from the education department Could have twisted the phrase to: औषध कविता मजला Poetry is the only medicine for me That would not only Have changed the example But also, people’s mindset And might have ensured that the poet’s daughter Wouldn’t have chucked her textbook away As soon as her Marathi exam got over A Story, Not in the Ramayana Everyone knows Shabri’s tale But Tagri’s story is known only to me No doubt the Ramayana is a great epic And this little tale nests within it And yet, Tagri’s one mistake Led the entire Ramayana to unravel In front of Sita’s little hut Grew a Tagri tree, unfamiliar to all Neither Ram nor Sita ever knew How it grew so tall Neither Sita nor Ram Ever paid it any heed At least Lakshman should have But he didn’t, either It’s said that Lakshman Was in charge of Ram’s Z-Security, but so what It’s only the Ramayana that concerns me 2. Tagri was Sita’s devotee Hence at all times She lovingly watched Over her mother Just as Shabri was a bhakt of Ram So was Tagri a bhakt of Sita A divine messenger came to Tagri In a dream, telling her Of Ravana’s interest in Sita, saying He’s got his eye on you Heedless of her self Tagri made it her mission To absorb Sita’s scent Ravana came calling, in many guises But could never see Sita Nor get wind of her scent For Tagri would, each day Divest Sita of her scent And when Ram retuned at dusk Lightly release it back into the air 3. But one day, Ravana arrived Transmogrified into a bumblebee He mounted me, said Tagri And sucked Sita’s scent out of me He had come to know Of my love for Sita And I had come to know Of his evil game And so, he cursed me No one will ever smell you now And you will go down Deep into the bowels of the earth Had I not become infatuated With the bumblebee, even I Could have been Prajakta Realizing this my mind turns bitter This one error of mine Caused the entire Ramayana to happen Or else Ravana would never have caught a whiff And Sita would have lived happily ever after in Panchavati The ending of my prowess My ability to absorb scents Ended my good fortune And melted the regime down 4. For my sins Sita’s scent spread through the forest One Ravana after another Entered the forest of Panchavati And not only that Now even the birds and the butterflies knew That Ram and Sita lived here What was there to worry about now Then, one day Ravana came dressed as a mendicant Breached Lakshmana’s security And decamped with Sita Sita’s kidnapping shook everyone up Ram was shaken too I was shaken as well Sadness overpowered my senses Even in his sorrow Ram came to know of my impropriety And despite my one mistake He forgave me He also freed me From Ravana’s curse And decreed that henceforth I would have the honour of being offered to Sita first I would stay evergreen Blossom in every season And never have to adorn And rot away on a funeral bier From that day on Tagri Became Sadaphuli, the ever-blossoming And Valmiki never knew how This story unfolded. Translated from the Marathi by Mustansir Dalvi |
Hemant Divate is a poet, editor, publisher, translator and poetry activist. He is the author of eight poetry collections in Marathi. His most recent book in English translation is Paranoia (2023). Divate’s poems have been translated into more than 30 international languages. In translation, he has a book each in Spanish, Irish, Arabic, German and Estonian apart from four in English. His poems figure in numerous anthologies in Marathi, English and Slovenian.
Mustansir Dalvi is a poet, translator, and editor. He has authored three books of poems in English: Brouhahas of Cocks, Cosmopolitician and Walk. Mustansir’s 2012 English translation of Muhammad Iqbal’s Shikwa and Jawaab-e-Shikwa as Taking Issue and Allah’s Answer has been described as “insolent and heretical”. He is the editor of Man without a Navel, a collection of translations of Hemant Divate’s poems from the Marathi original. His translations of the poems of Faiz Ahmed Faiz, posted on his popular blog, are widely quoted, used in the media, and have been the subject of academic research.
|
