Poems of Aduri Satyavathi Devi

Poem-11

Childhood Shared with a Babe

Telugu Original: Aduri Satyavathi Devi

English Translation: Raamateertha

To have a glimpse of the new-born

On our invitation

You all come flying and land here

like beaming butterflies –

Moving freely with teeny weeny guests

We embellish the evening superlatively.

And elaborate the string of fortunes and promotions

Brought forth by our babe

Akin to an adolescent chunk of lunar sheen

And go on illustrating to our best.

 

Her coy smiles and clever looks-

The dusk gets trapped in between,

Even before the star lamps spread around the sky,

The luminous chandeliers moving in and out

Lit up the space around,

And our suckling passes into a series of hands

Like a frolicking moon in the crib of floating nimbus-

You all drown the infant with fragrant blessings

Like the grove showering Parijaatas[i],

While a nose gay perfume loiters around

Regretting the delay

Saucers full of savouries, cups of ice cream,

Chocolates and tea, greet you all in a rush,

The sweating new moon

Till then held on a tight leash of choking discipline

Flutter about like pigeons

And scatter around the premises

Transforming into a beau of vibrating iridescence,

The Gulmohar leaning onto the Compound wall

With the help of breeze leaves more than a trace

Of her scented titillation

We, deep in our conversation that began with

Golden girls and encomiums to Telugu Motherhood

Journey into the latest world affairs-

The spectacle of childhood melee

Unfolding in front creeps into our spine

A precious adolescence like a quick footed squirrel

Nibbles at the ripe guava of reminiscences,

Mellowed, gliding past the slippery steps,

Running behind the traces

We halt at the scene

Of bud sheltering in the lap of a branch

And rocking back and forth again and again

And become laden, juicy selves, like bunch of grapes.

While the parrot-bitten childhood

Gleams like a beauty spot on the face of life,

The conscience, a lactic flow of Godavari

Seeps into the roots of this existence-

Now and then, how good it will be

To have a few similar dusks of elan

Lively and throbbing

*****

Telugu Original : ‘Paapayitho Panchukunna Baalyam’

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