This is a ‘fragment’ on the Buddha monolith in the middle of the Hussain Sagar lake in Hyderabad ... this poem appears in the Buddha sequence of poems in K. V. Tirumalesh’s AKSHAYA KAVYA ...
POET: K. V. Tirumalesh
KANNADA ORIGINAL: first line of the fragment:
ಬುದ್ಧನ ನೋಡಿದವರು ಬುದ್ಧರಾಗುತ್ತಾರೆ
'Those who see the buddha become the buddha'
from AKSHAYA KAVYA (2010)
ENGLISH TRANSLATION: S. Jayasrinivasa Rao
Those who see the buddha become the buddha,
said the sculptor at Shilparamam once
From that day on
at dawn, at dusk
while going to work
while coming back from work
from the car, from the bus
from the banks of Hussain Sagar
from the steps of Birla Mandir
Standing sometimes, sometimes walking
and some more times just wandering
sometimes secretly, sometimes openly
amidst people
We can’t fall sleep
if we don’t see the buddha
Ayyo buddha, we say
make me a buddha, we say
lying face downwards
You put a shirt on him and
make him stand at the door?
You make a doll of him and
seat him inside a glass case?
Is that what you do?
O’ my dear sculptor,
take out your chisel and hammer
hammer our heads
chisel away our unnecessities
tear open our guts
The compassion in your eyes
that pristine smile on your lips
that majesty in your bearing and
the folds of your garment like
a million ripples of the quiet lake
You have to become a stone first
says Rodin and ready to be
a road-roller too
il faut toujours travailler
(it is still necessary to work)
The base material is basically the same
*****
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