Subscribe to Desicritics
Luminous Till Drowning
Vivek Sharma
I was I was
What a dreamer I was
Below the banyan tree
chasing your plaits I was
Across the noisy brook
chanting your name I was
Engrossed in your thoughts
pinning without a pause
Floating diya of faith
luminous till drowning I was. 10
I was I was
How enchanted I was
Inventing on your bodyscape
Kashmir Manali I was
In verses of Kalidasa Neruda
the poet in love I was
Determined to make you mine
striving without a pause
Floating diya of faith
luminous till drowning I was. 20
I was I was
Why a fool I was
Ignored my receding hairline
in wait a decade I was
Gobbled envy with vodka lime
Devdas sans Chandramukhi I was
Oblivious to your deceit
Mirza without a pause
Floating diya of faith
luminous till drowning I was. 30
May 03, 2006
1:30 pm
FOOTNOTES:
line 9: diya is an earthen lamp, with cotton wick that burns in oil.
line 10: diya is released into river on some holy nights in India, and floats away with a beautiful, flickering flame till it vanishes off your sight.
line 14: Kashmir and Manali are two valleys in Himalayas. A sixteen century poet remarked about Kashmir, "If there is heaven on earth, it is here, it is here, it is here."
line 15: Kalidasa was a great Sanskrit poet and writer, whose quality and quantity of brilliant works is matched maybe only by Shakespeare.
line 26: Devdas loved Paro, but wasn't able to stand against his father's whim and couldn't marry her. He, then, drank himself to death, while dancer Chandramukhi took him in and nursed him with her own unrequited love. A Sarat Chandra classic written in Bengali, made into two well known Bollywood movies.
line 28: Sahiba Mirza is a folk love story from Punjab. When Mirza eloped with Sahiba, he stopped on the way to take a nap. They were being pursued by Sahiba's five brothers. While Mirza slept, Sahiba's love for her brothers prompted her to break all Mirza's arrows, and hence when he was attacked, he was unarmed and heartbroken, and died fighting. Overcome by grief, Sahiba killed herself.
Luminous Till Drowning
RSS:
- Subscribe to RSS 2.0 feeds for:
- » Comments on this article
- » Culture
- » Culture: Sex
- » Culture: Women
- » Desicritics.org articles by Vivek Sharma
- » All Opinion articles
- » All Desicritics.org articles
temporal
URL
May 4, 2006
10:35 AM
vivek:
achchi hay:)
before the perennial lover is plucked (hitched, hijacked, tied) his boat visits many a port
the floating diya does have a lot in common with the lover...flickering, floating (from pier to pier... port to port)...in an act of cosmic randomness...
but destiny grabs him ... and locks him in a permanent (more or less) dock...till dust or ash is factored in
Vivek Sharma
URL
May 4, 2006
01:36 PM
Temporal:) Thats nicely summarizes the guiding idea of the poem.
Thanks
temporal
URL
May 4, 2006
01:52 PM
digression:
wonder if the poem would work better if the foot notes are eliminated and replaced with interactive links?
it may mean more googling perhaps for you but may be more helpful for the reader?
Vivek Sharma
URL
May 4, 2006
04:26 PM
Some links here:
Mirza Sahiba
http://www.littlemag.com/belonging/amrita.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirza_Sahiba
Devdas
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devdas
People can always go and find the terms on wiki or google.
Temporal: Writing footnotes, I found out recently, is considered as important as the poem itself, and my final aim being to become a published poet, I am just learning the various aspects of the craft. I agree links are useful for online presentation, but I will like my writing to be self sufficient in information.
temporal
URL
May 4, 2006
05:04 PM
vivek:
Temporal: Writing footnotes, I found out recently, is considered as important as the poem itself...
hmmmmm
personally, i prefer not to use them at all...or alternately...use as few as possible
links, otoh are fun...specially in an interactive media.... it adds a nuance the printed word does not offer
dr
URL
May 25, 2007
09:44 AM
for more info click to hokka mesa
fre
URL
June 7, 2007
04:05 PM
about++%3Ca+href%3D+http%3A%2F%2Fe%2Dpes.com%2Fcalendar%2Fwin%2Fch.asp%3Fq%3Dwebkinz%2Dblack%2Dlab+%3Ewebkinz+reindeer%3C%2Fa%3E+%0D%0A%0D%0Aabout++%3Ca+href%3D+http%3A%2F%2Fe%2Dpes.com%2Fcalendar%2Fwin%2Fch.asp%3Fq%3Dwebkinz%2Dhippo+%3Ewhere+to+buy+webkinz+information%3C%2Fa%3E+%0D%0A%0D%0Afor+more+info+click+to++%3Ca+href%3D+http%3A%2F%2Fe%2Dpes.com%2Fcalendar%2Fwin%2Fch.asp%3Fq%3Dwebkinz+%3Ewebkinz+for+sale%3C%2Fa%3E+%0D%0A%0D%0Afor+more+info+click+to++%3Ca+href%3D+http%3A%2F%2Fe%2Dpes.com%2Fcalendar%2Fwin%2Fch.asp%3Fq%3Dwebkinz%2Dcodes+%3Ewebkinz+dalmation%3C%2Fa%3E+%0D%0A%0D%0A%0D%0ALover+go
Add your comment
(Or ping: http://desicritics.org/tb/1652)