Our Orange Tree
English Translation: Madhuri Palaji
Telugu Original : Dr K.Geeta
The orange tree in our backyard is a mother now
With hundreds of beautiful oranges
A lively tree filled with
Complete motherhood
Beautiful skin tone from head to toe
Like it gave birth to morning rays
Like all the colors decided
And turned into orange
When sky packed
And gifted rainbow
Loving mother
Who held an umbrella of round stars
In our backyard
Until yesterday, with its empty branches
It used to observe me and the kids silently
Like it understood the mother’s heart
It used to swing kids on its branches
Until they forgot everything
It bloomed for the first time, six months ago
A beautiful morning
Happily swayed its head
To all the questions that are asked
It became the mother of young adults so soon
Until few days back
Behind green leaves
The baby oranges were so small
Hidden somewhere
Before that
They were perfumed white flowers
They creeped the mother tree quickly and greedily
Now and always
Swaying the branches heavily in the breeze
Laughs with oranges
Reminding us to carry life’s weights
Modestly
Tells the stories of victories
While spreading close towards the wall
Much before that
I became a gardener
Digging the earth for the tree
Watering every day
Cleaning the weeds
And looking after it daily
As soon as the flowers started smelling
Touching the hands of tree
Assuring
The sad tree
Asking not to give up
When the flowers fell due to sudden wind
Accompanying and sharing
The smiles of the growing baby fruit
Arranging strong sticks
To the heavy branches of fruits
Giving assurance with motherly hands
Now I became the mother
To the Orange tree
*****
Madhuri Palaji is a writer and book reviewer from India. Her book “Poems of The Clipped Nightingale” is available on Kindle. She writes book reviews for various publishing houses like Penguin Random House, Meerkat Press, Hot Tree Publishings, Bethany Publishers, etc. She is one of the top 50 book reviewers in India. Her reviews are available at http://www.theclippednightingale.com/
The poem “ Our orange Tree” reads like a celebration of Motherhood.
One can draw an analogy between the protagonist ( A mother of kids) and the fruit -bearing orange tree . The tree nourishes the fruits,cuddles them, bears their burden happily . The poet here sees a lesson to mankind to accept and carry the burdens of life uncomplainingly.
The poem begins with the orange tree becoming a mother and ends up with the protagonist becoming the mother to it. She tends to the orange tree by providing support to its heavy branches full of fruits, sharing its joys and touching its ‘hands ‘ ( not branches) lovingly. This establishes the bond between Nature and Man.
Poetic descriptions like the orange tree full of fruits “appearing like it gave birth to morning rays” and the tree looking like an “ umbrella of round stars” elevated the poignancy of the poem.
Dr. Geetha seems to take cues from life around and Nature for her poetic explorations. Congratulations Geetha. Madhuri Palaji who translated the poem deserves praise.
Thank you so much for your detailed comment Meera garu.