The Mind ...
मन के कोट की इक जेब से बेवक्त कोई पर्चा निकला | उसे पढ़ा, लिखा, पढ़ा पर न जाना, न समझा | फिर एक दिन लापरवाही की दराज में कहीं गुमा दिया | अनचाहे सफ़र में वक्त की टांग जहाँ जहाँ ज़रा ज़ोर से पड़ी वहाँ वहाँ कुछ दरका | किसी दरक में वही पर्चा घायल पड़ा था | न कोई पुरसाँ न वारिस कोई | उसी की छटपटाहट यहाँ लटका रहा हूँ | जाने कौन हवा कब क्या आस दे जाये |
शैन - विलाप , रोना-धोना, दोष, ऐब
Presented below is a loose English translation of this Hindi poem.
A lot of effort and ability is needed to carry over the charm of poetic expression and aesthetic value present in any original work into another language. I am afraid I do not have this ability. Yet I wanted to reach out to a wider audience. So even at the risk of sounding dull, I have attempted, by the way of this translation, to somehow try to convey the underlying idea of the poem however coarse it may seem though. I deeply lament that I could not preserve the allure of metre and rhythm that adorn the original poem in this translation. I offer my humble apologies to my readers for these poetic failings.
The Mind
Mind is an estranged friend
It's a moth like dream
Which makes me wander
from forest to forest
Enshrouding my night
as the day starts fading
What efforts would bring rains
to my life parched for ages
A thousand eyes of the mind
peek through the closed fists
of my lonely childhood
And on the other side of my eyes
wait endless strands of tears
Mind speaks when I am silent
Surrendering itself fatuously
to anyone it falls for
and doesn't remember
what it had been
pondering on yesterday
Like a spurting water stream
that doesn't listen to anyone
Mind thinks and sings of itself
And it remains alienated so
Every happiness
is stained with a sorrow
For there's a horde
ready to pull the shade
off my head
There's a mind
in hiding within itself
holding a body
of dreams covered in sutures
playing hide and seek
like the clouds
and like collyrium
embracing the smoke
Storing up petrified pearls and
threads of anxiety
in my eyes
the mind is sleepless
every now and then
Echoes of
the clamor of closed eyes
befell every dawn
Mind was always restless
and it went restless
quietly taking with itself
all my faults and mournings !
- Ishu Priye
June 1st , 2021
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