Magic mirror

 Magic mirror

Telugu Original-Seela Subhadra Devi

Translation –Swatee Sripada 

We think something 

But wee don’t know what we are

When we argued for the curry or the curd 

concealed for elder brother 

when mother serves with affection

without a word we adjust with pickle only.

Even now we walk in the same footsteps 

We came into this world like all others 

We have no idea what a thought is.

Chasing away the sleep perched on the eyelids 

If a murmur says in ears ‘you are my everything’ 

Taking it as a chanting 

On the chest we have the tattoos willingly 

Lifting the entire home on shoulders 

Day and night wee crush our bodies 

We love everyone but we don’t know what love is 

Not to get the evil eye on us 

Treating as a rare glass doll without even a sense of

Sunlight

When captured in glass almirah without even a trace of air 

We stay there carefully feeling it is true 

We have not a thought of our anatomy 

Or the power we have 

When said ’you don’t know anything’ 

We believe it 

within the three words- you don’t know 

From the birth 

We turn in circle only.

Without any knowledge 

Huddled closely as plump marigolds in a pretty way 

We have grown up. 

From the kaleidoscopes fixed to our eyes 

When you people watch us fondly 

To appear as you wish

We try anxiously every minute. 

We open the eyes with sun but no thought to close them 

Even with the moon. 

We transform into many forms 

Either cleaning the dishes or washing clothes 

We became many hands carrying umpteen number of works 

Full of the Kaleidoscope.

At every corner in the home 

Though our craftsmanship hangs 

Can’t even be ours even a bit 

Searching your footprints and walking in them 

We became shadows nestling in them. 

Carrying the windows of light 

When the curtains of darkness are drawn 

Eyes streaming in total looks 

Open throughout your body

Till the eyelids exhaust 

In strange forms 

We became the organs to fulfill the desires 

Without our knowledge 

Appearances change 

We don’t know but 

In your magic mirrors 

Why doesn’t our mind never reflect?

Why doesn’t our brain reveal?

Probably due to their formlessness

When a thought awakens 

When we know what we are 

We will be either brains 

Or ever beating hearts 

At that time suddenly 

The magic mirror becomes a magnifying glass 

The  ego we never saw and we never knew 

Shine on our heads as horns 

In our words and deeds as if flowing completely 

Shows the ego in multicolor

While watching we appear as giant demons 

As never reflected before by our mind 

Never allowed us to unite with our thoughts 

As a complete blossomed individual human 

Enjoying  strange kaleidoscopic pictures 

Alarmed by the magnifying glass 

When you hide in the era of our unfamiliarity 

As long as we never crush the 

The magic mirror between you and us 

This distance between us goes on increasing 

*****