SEA - Translation of SAMUDRA ಸಮುದ್ರ

Sea

 

I am the sea, I felt,

for Hyderabad has no sea,

and spread across

the length and breadth of this great city,

filling its streets,

filling its lanes;

in my desire to belong

lay its anxieties.

 

Alarmed,

it invites me with open arms,

parting its veil, it opens itself,

but, the disturbed mind,

encircled by temples and gopura-s and minars,

wouldn’t open itself.

 

 

I roamed, I laid siege,

I sowed clouds

at heights I couldn’t reach.

On shopfronts,

on masjid steps,

on unknown frontyards,

wherever I could

I carved my dreams.

Within, I withered.

 

In the darkening dusk

who picked up the shattered shells?

Who sobbed their sorrows in secret

so that nobody could hear?

Who erased all their marks

as they moved on?

The breeze has now cooled down

reviving memories of other seas

and other shocks.

It’s been ages,

I slept –

I have more to sleep

I have my own frontiers to embrace.

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