Triveni Journal
1927 | 11,233,916 words
Triveni is a journal dedicated to ancient Indian culture, history, philosophy, art, spirituality, music and all sorts of literature. Triveni was founded at Madras in 1927 and since that time various authors have donated their creativity in the form of articles, covering many aspects of public life....
SHIV KUMAR BATALVI
Oh mother! I’ve lost my heart to a bird of prey
Crowned head and ankleted feet
Tamely pecking at grain he came towards me.
It was the brilliance of his beauty that struck me first
Then there was this thirst for fragrance
Added to this a rich complexion
doing justice to his handsome ancestry.
I laid, a woven bed of love
Beneath a canopy of stars
The very instant he trod the weave
My apparel was tainted a muddied hue.
A numb ache pervades my teanducts
Yet a flood of tears encroaches
The night wears out.....
In vain, I wonder at this cruel slight.
Come dawn with tender care
Offer him delicacies favoured by aves
He declines.....
I feed him the very flesh of my heart.
Just one energetic soar
And he had flown–never to reappear
Oh Mother! I’ve lost my heart to a bird of prey.
–Translated from Punjabi by Jaskiran Grewal