On the Morning It Rained (poem)
Telugu Original: Mandarapu Hymavati
EnglishTranslation: Syamala Kallury
Early morning
With sleepy eyes
As soon as I come to the front door
Lo, a wonderful visual poem I see
That mesmerises the mind
The hurried jobs of morning, job-related
Drudgery of house and kitchen work forgotten,
Relaxing in the green nature
Pausing from the compulsory daily tasks
One with the green world I
Enter the world of bliss
Sitting on the stage of the earth
The flowers sing welcome songs
Watching this
The mind which has turned into a machine
Gains moisture by the touch of the raindrop
And sprouts new leaves again!
Face upward red stems
Face downwards white petals
Like the rishis in sheershasan,
Yoga of body upside down,
Like minds not touched by dirt
The flowers kindle
Memories of childhood in the heart!
In childhood
Waking up early in the morning
Picking flowers
Drenched and washed in dew
Competing with friends
Collecting them in frock
Weaving garlands, many memories,
Going out
While on the way to bring milk packet
Or to buy vegetables
The mother tree showers
Flowers like blessings!
In these days with a hand-held phone
We talk with long distance connections
But have no time for those who live close-by
Trees stand like guards at the gate
And talk to every passer-by
Offering fragrant friendships
Who can beat a dear friend like a tree?
Jasmines of various kinds and sampegas
Has there been any poetic creation, a kavya
Celebrating a tree?
You are the subject of Mukku Timmana
Who composed a long poem*, kavya
Narrating the valour of Satyabhama
The one who followed her mate Krishna
Into the battle-field
When she asked for a flower
He ventured out
To give her the tree, were you not the subject?
Every morning the colourful patterns
Created by flowers in front of the house
Like rangolis,
And then comes the broom of the sweeper
Who clears the beautiful flowery beds
with one brush, saddening the mind.
Parijataapaharanam. The Theft of Parijata by Mukku Timmana or Nandi Timmana.
*****
Syamala Kallury taught for over a decade and a half in the AP Govt colleges in Srikakulam and Visakhapatnam as Lecturer in English She moved to Delhi after marriage where she taught in Delhi University, and in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at IIT Delhi till 2011 She has two daughters Ahana and Kruttika, who live in UK and Dubai respectively. Currently she lives in Visakhapatman with her dog Subbu, a cocker spaniel. A bilingual writer and translator, Syamala authored many books. 1. Telugu Short Stories women’s Voices: An Inner Voyage(1930-2000) Asian Publication House (2001)2. Twentieth Century Telugu Poetry (2006) 3. Godavari Tales Viveka Foundation (2006) 4.స్వగతాలు (2009) 5. If you Want To be a Poet, Patridge India (2018) 6. కంచికి వెళ్లకూడని కథలు navachetana పబ్లిషర్స్ (2019) 7.భావవిహంగాలు Telugu translation of Tagore’ s Stray Birds (1988, 2019)8. Rajanigandha, translation of Papineni Sivasankar’s award winning poetry collection with the same title published by Sahitya Academy New Delare ఆ few of her పబ్లికేషన్స్ in addition to a number of academic articles