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Mohan Singh
Taunt
They urge me to be wrapt in sleep
To get invisible to everyone.
To bear within what happens without
And be like a vast ocean…
Boundless and deep
Hiding in its breast, pains
Cries, shrieks, complaints,
And dreams wrapt around
Which others hear or know.
Or like a mountain turn
Snow-clad, pristine, cold
Rising high to the sky
Which none can ever espy.
Don’t melt into tears thus
For how with us can you travel
To the land of inebriate dreams,
Where ways are arduous to find?
Not a spark can you hide!
Not a drop can you imbibe!
Translated by Tejwant Singh
Gill
Memory
For me it was all extinguished
Not a trace was left of the fire behind
May God spare me from this spark
That once again smoulders in the heart.
On heart’s terrain do jungles grow?
To turn this spark into wild fire.
It takes years for love to die
Again to stir up in the wink of an eye.
Once astir its burning flame
Keeps shining like the dazzling sky.
Dim seems the face that launched it
Again to dazzle with its burning light.
Passion so gets the better of the heart
That by household task it doesn’t abide.
Its reckless horse gets beyond all control
Leaving the road to trot on the path so wild.
How shrunken get the divine and mundane
And acumen then does nothing provide.
Once again haunts the memory of one
For whose sake, world’s censure was mine.
Translated by Tejwant Singh
Gill
Love
Love, you said,
Is like a star
Crores of miles afar
Lost in its own charm,
Between both in fact
There is a link of the sort,
Love, I replied
Is like a star.
Love, you held,
Is like the moon
Cool, comely and calm
With a lonely feeling’s stance,
Sleeping tides awake
When it smiles from afar,
Nothing can constrain
Its power to swoon,
Love, I contended
Is like the moon
Love, you observed,
Is like a rose
Perched at the top
With colours it plays,
Not a note it sounds
Though numerous the tunes,
When to air’s destined end
A smile it extends,
Caravans of fragrance go,
Love I observed,
Is like a rose.
Love, you imagined
Is like a dream
A castle of gold
With solver doors,
In the window sits a fairy
Spreading charms around,
Appareled in light
Brimming with ardour
Gesturing all and sundry
Wings of fantasy it flaps,
With no fear to sink
Across hue’s river it swims
To reach the other shore,
Love, I imagined,
Is like a dream.
Having lived through life’s dark dungeon
After the time was turned,
You met and affirmed
That love is neither a flower not a star,
The star all the time charms waves
And the rose not a single word says.
I then confirmed.
Love is not like a dream,
When the dream snaps
Someone chisels a word
Another smothers a stone
That thus then to us moans:
Love is like a piece of bread,
Without which hunger doesn’t end
And life’s purpose isn’t served.
Translated by Tejwant Singh Gill
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