मैं नीर भरी दुख की बदली! ~BY MAHADEVI VARMA
स्पन्दन में चिर निस्पन्द बसा
क्रन्दन में आहत विश्व हँसा
नयनों में दीपक से जलते,
स्पन्दन में चिर निस्पन्द बसा
क्रन्दन में आहत विश्व हँसा
नयनों में दीपक से जलते,
It was hard to believe the flesh was heavy on my back.
The fisherman said: Will you have her,
I have a rendezvous with Death
At some disputed barricade
When Spring comes back with rustling shade
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
I don’t know politics but I know the names
Of those in power, and can repeat them like
Days of week, or names of months, beginning with Nehru.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
On either side the river lie
Long fields of barley and of rye,
That clothe the wold and meet the sky;
I remember the night my mother
was stung by a scorpion. Ten hours
of steady rain had driven him
In Madurai,
city of temples and poets,
who sang of cities and temples,
Because I could not stop for Death –He kindly stopped for me –
The Carriage held but just Ourselves –
And Immortality.