In the Desert sans words (Telugu Original by Mandarapu Hymavati)

In the Desert sans words (poems)

Telugu Original: Mandarapu Hymavati

EnglishTranslation: Syamala Kallury

After a day of stressful pressures, many and varied
After I return home on lifeless evenings
Like a dried branch of Amaranthus
I intend to lean on your shoulder and rest
Washing my limbs in the still waters of a quiet pond
I plan spend comfortably with you
That was an unrealised dream on times
When I go at sunrise and return only when the sun sets

The memories fragrant Mimusops Elengi, pogada, flowers
The fragrances intoxicate even now gathering
In the mandirs of clouds of desires-
The wonderful moments with the world banished
In close embraces of poetic symposium, Urdu Mushairas,
The raining nectars in days of dull mechanical routines
The times you worshipped me with garlands of words
Showering incantations on my gait,
Hundred poems, satakas on my smile
In an adwaita state unable to distinguish between day and night
On the trees sprouting during riverside conversations
Greeted by birds of happiness
The seven hued rainbows on the curtains of merged minds
Of curtains, those moments that fly past like young horses
Where are they now?
Those fragrant jasmine words
Those sprouts of affections
Disappearing with the magic wand of
The magician called technology
The words of rivers, faded gardens of silly fights
The friendly memories now, butterflies without address

Daytimes, busy in the circle of our professions
Each of us go in round
At during nights when we reach our nests
I feel like eating together in candle light of friendly chats
But you gulp your food in a hurry four fistfuls
Like a silent rishi
Not one comment if salt is in excess in lentil or
If the vegetable burns your throat
You say that you are being drowned in
The whirlpool hurry, no time to breathes.
No time to die even for you
But as soon as the cell rings you forget that you are busy
Your gain your breath and
Open the doors to engage in non-stop talking

When wait in the evening waiting for the bus
I plan to share
The scene of birds like a moving bridge
Fly on the sky from one end to the other
The joke one colleague shared making us laugh
Till our stomachs ached
Share the day’s events opening my fan
Like a dancing peacock

Even when you return home
After office, you cannot see the human
Standing like a tall tree
You get busy with your beloved, the laptop
You enter your room, your world
As soon as you close your doors
My words in my throat become
The prisoners hanged to death.

We share one roof
Two lines that never meet, always in opposition
Like two poles that can never meet
Even when I wear a new sari or
Adorn my hair with flowers
The cruel punishment of your indifferenceunable to escape
I feel like breaking through the chains of tradition
I want to fly in the free sky, opening my wings
But…Like the creepers that entwines and impinges my movement
I Cannot move away anywhere, escaping from these children
I remain, a lonely camel in a desert,bereft of words! 

*****

(*Thotakura -Amaranthus; Pogadapulu-Mimusops elengi;Mushaira-Urdu poetic symposium)