it strikes me again and again with great force that there is nothing.
nothing to say, no reason to say it
that it is not worth the trouble to do it
when it is all naught
that we will live
and that we will die
and there will be nothing
that I am nothing
then see the wave.
it is useless, of course.
what use could there be
there is this rock and there is this water
still, ceaseless it is
again and again
hypnotic
as if it meant something
there is conviction in the wave’s slap
determination
repetition
resignation
duty, dharma
just
because
it is difficult
diffused,
to rise from nothing
to gather carefully all the quarks
that make up me
put them together
and become a person
to summon a smile
go about finding
what is needed
from me
and do it
peevish
like a child
whose parent has ambitions
___________
*I've borrowed the title from Bulleh Shah. Loose trans.: There comes a point when all talk ends
11 comments:
The last stanza is beautiful.
Thank you, Bhupinder.
Lovely!! Every word.
How is that when you claim to have nothing to say, you always say it so well?
quarks?
See? I do write when I have something to say. Does not mean I do not read everything you have to say! Its lovely and ironic. I look forward to long chats this summer... but how are we going to manage it?
Priya
Gagu: danku, danku.
Kuffir: es, es. quarks, stuff, non-stuff, whatever.
Pri mo: There you are! long chats will be managed somehow, you just come.
i faintly understand what quarks mean.. but its usage seems slightly odd in this context. otherwise, it's a good job of interpretation.
do you speak the lingo?
Does a duck with a speech impediment go Quark?
funnieee! auzman
lingo? *puzzled* Kuffir, you're not thinking the whole piece a translation of Bulla, are you, because its not. I just used the first line from one of his poems for my title.
'as if it meant something
there is conviction in the wave’s slap'..
sheetal, forgive me for not giving you credit for conceiving the whole piece. yes, i was under the mistaken assumption that you had translated the whole thing.
it's brilliant in parts..like lines i quoted above. and also:
'peevish
like a child
whose parent has ambitions'.
you must have done this earlier.. why don't you post some earlier poems/verses/stuff?
but.. what's this?
'determination
repetition
resignation
duty, dharma'..seems like just words, why didn't you think of an expression like 'quarks' here that'd better describe what you feel? it seems kind of wordy here.
and
'to summon a smile
go about finding
what is needed
from me
and do it'..
the image you convey is one of boredom, is that what you wanted to express? i suspect it's something else altogether.
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