Two poems in translation
सबकी किस्मत में इतवार नहीं होता झूठ कहूं तो दिल तैयार नहीं होता सच से लेकिन बेड़ा पार नहीं होता आप नफे में खुश हैं हम घाटे में खुश रिश्तों का हमसे व्यापार नहीं होता राम की शबरी जंगल में तो रहती है बेरों पर उसका अधिकार नहीं होता हम केवल अपनी कमजोरी जीते हैं रिश्ता तो कोई बीमार नहीं होता सुनना,सहना,चुप रहना फिर हंसना भी खुद पे इतना अत्याचार नहीं होता खुद से डरना कश्ती पे भी शक करना अब ऐसे तो दरिया पार नहीं होता ये सच है वो हर हफ्ते ही आता है सबकी किस्मत में इतवार नहीं होता सीधे, सच्चे, अच्छे भी हैं लोग बहुत कैसे कह दूं दो-दो चार नहीं होता Not in Everyone’s Fate is Written a Sunday My heart is not willing for me to tell a lie By telling the truth I find I cannot survive You are happy with profit, I am happy with my loss A trading in relationships I won’t do at any cost Shabri lived in the forest; none will deny this fact She cannot claim the ‘ber’ as hers because of that Everyone lives his weaknesses in this life It is not relationships that fall sick in life Listen, suffer, keep silent and then also laugh One cannot inflict such torture on oneself at all To be afraid of self and suspect this boat itself This is not the way an ocean can be crossed It’s true that in the week it is just one day Not in everyone’s fate is written a Sunday Simple, straightforward men are many and more How do I write then two and two do not make four.
राम तुम्हारे युग का रावण अच्छा था राम तुम्हारे युग का रावण अच्छा था दस के दस चेहरे सब बाहर रखता था दुख देकर ही चैन कहां था जालिम को टूट, तड़प भी चेहरे पर वो पढ़ता था शाम ढले ये टीस तो भीतर उठती है मेरा खुद से हर एक वादा झूठा था ये भी था कि दिल को कितना समझा लो बात गलत होती थी तो वो लड़ता था मेरे दौर को कुछ यूं लिक्खा जाएगा राजा का किरदार बहुत ही बौना था Ram, the Ravan of Your Time was Good Ram, the Ravan of your time was good, Kept his ten faces out, not hidden under a hood. He had no peace of mind if he just meted pain Had to read despair on your face to notch a gain When evening falls this anguish does rise within Each promise I made to myself a lie has been Though I did explain things to my heart, it’s there It fought with me when found these things unfair After some wanderings, realization hits each one’s memory The truth of ancestors speaks every generation’s story Writing of my time, they will put it this way A dwarf was chosen for the king’s role to play
Abha Iyengar is an award-winning, internationally published poet, author, editor, and British-Council-certified Creative Writing mentor. She is the founder of Creative Wings Studio. She has eight published books to her credit, and her collection of poems is titled, “Yearnings”. Her poems have been included in innumerable journals and anthologies, most recently Sahitya Akademi’s, “The Lie of the Land” (2020), Red Rivers' "The Shape Of A Poem" (2021) and "Witness: Red River's Poetry of Dissent" (2021). She was longlisted for the WE- Kamala Das Poetry Award '20.
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