High-Spirited Woman : Rajasthani Poem by Sapna Verma English Translation by Rajni Chhabra
SAPNA VERMA
HIGH- SPIRITED WOMAN
While milking cows
Along with milk squirt
Amidst being hit by tail of cow
Who co-ordinates rhythm
That woman only is high-spirited
While making cow-dung cakes
Who pays heed to
Uniformity of shape
In hand- impression put on* theprhee
Who tries to find impressions of
Lines of her hand
That woman only is high-spirited
While grinding
When the rhythmic sound
Produced by grains
Is fused into sweet music
Flowing from her
Melodious voice
That woman only is high-spirited
Working like machine
But not turning into machine
keeps shaping and framing
Her own dreams
That woman only is high-spirited
But every woman
Who seems alive
Is not full of life
When vision turns stony
When vision gets stuck
To a specific point
When she becomes like a wall
Though sitting in front of hearth
Milk boiling overflows
When in squirt of milk
She hears noise only
When while making cow-dung cakes
She hears only sound of dung-slapping
When grinding-stone
Solely produces sound
When hand gets burnt
While making chapatis
O human-beings!
Just pay attention to it
This is not woman
But moving corpse
She is devoid of life
Only seems to be alive.
* theprhee: cow-dung cake
Each rural woman is gifted brave spirited woman seen in her enthusiasm in routine chores like making cow dung cakes, milking cow and grinding grains for family food preparation on open hearth of fire ,making her dream like birth in woman mode a happy memory. Yet in male dominated society every woman is not liberated to live her life in spirited way,and her vision becomes stony and life style like a machine or a moving corpse. Very sad state of affairs which needs intervention by human right activists and social reformers in society
ReplyDeleteI absolutely support your viewpoint. Thanks for reaching depth of poem and commenting
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