MOTHER-TONGUE : A RAJASTHANI POEM BY SHAKUNTALA SHARMA: ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY RAJNI CHHABRA

MOTHER-TONGUE

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Highly well-educated

Highly established

Convened many meetings

Probed for many possibilities

How can we enhance

How can we develop

Our attachment 

With mother-tongue

Superficially delivering speeches

Never peeped in our own homes

When our children leant to speak

We committed a deep lapse

Taught plenty of English to child

We were very joyous, making baby dance

Come on Baby.....Come on Baby

But ...in depth oh heart of baby

Mother-tongue kept mingled

Don't learn mother-tongue

My better-half started teaching him Hindi

I, too, started teaching him English enthusiastically

In morning as well in evening, holding child

Make him play a lot in courtyard of language

Wife made him cram in Hindi

And I kept following English

Baby ..Come on....Baby--Come on

Early come on....early come on

Child, shunning aside Hindi and English

So smartly, laughingly said

*" Bego aaoon"!!!

Bego aaoon.......

I said to my wife

See, our fate shattered

He has proved futile all our efforts

Wife pondered over it and said

Don't think over what he has learnt

First of all, you think over

Don't over-burden the child

With load of three languages

Let him learn 

Mother-tongue 

First of all

This attachment for mother-tongue

Will persist automatically

You can not wash it away

Leaving aside both two languages

When child uttered

" Bego aaoon....bego aaoon"

 

Understanding this whole episode

I am ashamed of myself in front of child

Our mother-tongue is very sweet

Our language ....Rajasthani

Has occupied my heart.

* Bego aaoon: Come early