Poems of Aduri Satyavathi Devi

Poem-12

The Torn Emerald Canvas

Telugu Original: Aduri Satyavathi Devi

English Translation: Raamateertha

Perching on the yonder hill side greenery
As if busy composing music to a new song,
With awakening roulades,
Those birds becoming musical organs,
In pairs drenching in the snow ‘Mushaira’
Used to fill my morning walk
With an amalgam of emotive raga.
Their song penetrating into the being,
Activated always the sap-chords of life.
After a spirited sport of catch-me-if-you-can,
Me charging ahead and they withdrawing further,
They used to toss me for sure
Into the halcyon days of childhood.
At every dawn I used to find a pack of confectionery,
And for the tomorrow,
There always remained a sweet dream.
When cumulus pitch-blacks crowded the canopy
And jets came down attackingly,
Folding the winds closer,
Beaks engaged in preening,
Becoming special editions of wanderlust
They used to conduct many a news conference.
To those outstretched branches of the tree
As if imparting wisdom in multi-lingual mode
They used to chirp in unison.
In the times of life drying up
And dropping down like a powdery remnant
Bereft of sanitized purity,
That song of unification
Becoming a hydrous spread beneath my heart,
Used to caress me till recent days.
Today, all that became a highway,
Setting the stage for a modern industrial complex.
That canvas of pristine beauty is ravaged and pulled apart.
The roots wrenched out from the comforting bowels of earth
Are wailing there, mouths dry.
The last season of rains went amiss,
So also, the spring.
Now in my run too, diverted from the umbrage of trees,
The rhythm and the beat of Nature is lost.

*****

Telugu Original : ‘Chinigipoyina Patchala Canvas’

Please follow and like us:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.