Juno Darkhat: Rajasthani poem by Shakuntala Sharma English version: Rajni Chhabra

 OLD TREE

***********

In orchids -gardens

Near fence of fields

You will come across

An old tree

Stretched wide

Branches as if 

Stretched arms

Playfully flying

Sparrows chirped

Day and night

Settled there at night

To sleep

 A sparrow fluttering

Approached that mature tree

The tree laughed and said

Crazy bird, tell me 

What do you want to say

Grandfather, O, grandfather!

Listen to me today

Our dwelling place 

Is being continually 

Snatched by human-being

Wherever, we go to play

Wherever, we settle

He reaches there

This venomous human-being

How can we make them understand

Wherever, he sees flourishing trees

Reaches there and cuts them

Uproots whole garden

Builds his huge castles

Tell me

O, Grandfather!

How can we mange to survive

O, Grandfather!

God has bestowed everyone with food

Why human-beings are snatching it from others

Why do they torture you

I am an old tree

All of you are my children

Come, sit on my branches

A vehicle reached noisily

In blink of an eyes

Cut the tree

Now, misfortune landed on birds

The old tree wept

His sayings were ignored

Flying birds too cried

Womb of nature was destroyed

Following felling of trees

Cool wind got annoyed

Scorching winds started blowing

Intolerable high temperature followed

Clouds, too, disappeared

People were dying of thirst

People were starving

And lamented in the inner cores of heart

Why did they cut those trees

Could not understand

Be alert, be cautious now

This is urge of nature

The tree kept on imploring

Birds flew far away

Where have vanished sayings of heart

O, human-being, pay heed to

What the old tree had said

What the old tree had said.