Bhagiratha’s Bounty and Other poems-5

Bhagiratha’s Bounty and Other poems-5

English Translation: T.S. Chandra Mouli

Telugu Original : Kandukuri Sreeramulu

5.Demon

Sea looks like sky on earth
waves roll with undulations
like clouds drifting daintily.
Sun rays landing on breakers
arrive as festoons of silver medals
frequently vanishing for a while.
End is not death in itself, a birth!

Arena of sea is like conflict zone
weather too tickles with cool breeze
shore seems to be celebrating dawn.

Entire Nature resplendent with tranquillity
seascape blooms like brilliance.

Sunlit sea
glow of sea on my face
waves of water mirror my face
as I extend arm before sea
holy water lands in my palm.

I witnessed winsome waves raising
also saw moon light spreading.

Like birds flying freely in sky
strolling, sprinting on the beach
I was ecstatic.
When asked where pleasure lies, fun
responded I at once, it was on sea shore.
While lovers whispered in orchard of rollers
I felt it better if entire world dozed there.
As families gathered in numbers good
proudly I perceived them as ports of picnics.
Watching those on boat ride in sea
felt I would have steered better had I been an oar,
viewing children of sea catch fish
desired I to be their child.

May I state if anyone wishes to see
it had to be the sea only,
how I wished if people script something about sea
the deep would become holy book for daily recitation.

But—
how tactful like Time is this sea!
What a shrew like sky is this sea!!

I thought it would hide itself
when I closed my eyes,
but idea never ensued
that it will arrive unseen impishly,
felt I it reminded a partner perfect lifelong
but never visualised it would prefer
divorce in courts of law.
When I walked, it would follow presumed I,
never ever imagined it would chase
like will-o-the-wisp.
It was perceived as a feline
licking foot prints on sands of shore
but never dreamt it was a tiger that devoured people.

Oh my dear sea!
Confident that you are a delicate damsel
moving like a swan with swagger of waves
the other day here itself
I spoke pleasantly in your presence!
Soon after leaving the place
it never occurred to me
you would flood our homes in a trice.

What a calamity it was—
what a disaster it had been!
How terrible it had been!!
Trusted souls perished in mid-sea
ruthlessly enmeshed all fisher men.

Where is the old man who offered hot tea
as I visited you the other day?
Where is his granddaughter
who challenged you in your swishing yard of waves
with her tinkling anklets on feet?
It seems you carried with a band of musicians
the members of a marriage troupe
who visited you and bathed blissfully!
How about the smoker
who loved a rustic Beedi
found in hotel room on the beach? 

What happened to the travellers in bus
buried under thorny bushes
beneath crumbled wall of bricks?
Where is the man who left his clothes
on the sandy beach carelessly?

Viewed as the one crawling under feet
none expected you would flood fronds of palmyra trees
breaching all barriers!

Where is the poison obtained
as the divine ones and demons churned sea?
Show me where lies the secret hide out
of millions of demons!

Oh my dear sea!

I trust it is better to survive in a cemetery
than seeking shelter nearer to you,
I also trust it will cremate the dead only
but not the living ones as you did.

Till yesterday you were deemed a dear friend
today our enemy you are.
We believed you were a warrior
but it is proved you are a craven backstabber!
I felt you are lovely as a Lambadi girl
you are so ugly really!
Happily I regarded you as a sage
in deep meditation from ages,
you are a corrosive crane, indeed!
A cut-throat deceptive woman you are!!

We may trust innocent mirages
that delude as though teeming with water,
but never, never believe you
who ditched us pretending as Sanjivani hill
and arrived as a catastrophe
swamping, sinking all alive!
[A Tsunami devastated!
Scared of another Tsunami!! ]

*****

(To be continued-)