In the Plane

BY BALAMANI AMMA
(Rendered by the author from her Malayalam poem, “Vimanathil”)

The ‘plane wreathes and screams frantically.
Struggling to liberate itself from the earth.

With vast fields of paddy still green,
Rose-bushes all in bloom,
With crystal fountains mirroring the celestial flights,
Glistens multi-hued the world I am to leave behind.

The earth that seemed so firm and harmonious,
Staggers suddenly, whirls and turns chaotic.
The myriad-temptationed one
Recedes from me in terrific speed.

The clouds obstructing my path
Scatter and melt away.
Now they seem to me as flags
Hoisted in triumph by the hosts of subterranean darkness,
Not as flimsy curtains
Swaying over the portal of paradise.

Away! Ye vapours!
Man must subdue even the utmost heights,
Man, the invincible, whose unfailing labours turned
The infernal abysses into mines of fabulous wealth;
Man whose will, pulling its flexible cord,
Makes space and time dance as puppets!

As I soar higher and higher
The breath of mortality grows thinner and thinner.
Far below, shadow-like, lies the earth,
Unattractive, faded and insignificant.
Gradually the senses begin to swoon
And body seems lighter
Millions of lights flit around.
Are they not flowers the vanquished earth worships me with?
All colours being melted,
Infinity looms like a mighty ocean;
And into that crystalline glory
My beatified soul merges.

Alas! Futile is this striving of mine.
The top of the miraculous throne is still distant from me.
Countless are the steps yet to be climbed.
How could this mould of clay,
With life getting extinguished as its earthliness is subdued,
Urge this machine on?
Undirected it might fall
And shatter to pieces.

Oh! How transient is the sojourn
On those sacred heights!
How unconquerable is the attraction of dust!

Smiling with uplifted hands
The earth hails my descending ‘plane:
Welcome! O Victor! to my breast
Whereon repose self-defeated,
They who waged war on the elements.