Silken Tassel

The sight of all that I had seen-

Of domes and arches and walls raised tall,

Of sunlight upraised,

 Like a cat rearing on her paws,

From the terrace,

To seize wherever she chose,

Laughter and merriment floating free…

All the sights I once had known,

Spaces and niches, corners, shades and grots,

Where none have ingress

But whose arms,

As minds and words

Are intertwined,

As in a air above them

Pigeons bill in pairs.

A soft alphabet-

Spilling out meanings-

Impregnable as high castle walls,

Steep as turrets none may scale-

Senses set afloat on

Rivers of the mind,

Fathomless to the world beyond them

Leaving understanding far behind…

I have observed how

At the threshold of light,

The darkness of night

Stealthily wrapped itself

In the colors of

The milky dawn.

And as the star-studded sky

Blinked with a myriad eyes,

The moon pored

Over the courtyard beneath,

Resting with her elbows

On the tent of sky,

Looking down in the pale shine of her beams

At the melodies playing

In the season’s pageant,

One with the time of year,

As night lay dwindling, melting,

Dissolved in a soft web of musical tones…

And I have read

History endlessly carved

Atop the balconies and fluted walls,

Immortal, its whispers rising,

Above the ceaseless tumult

Filling up space

Like the smoke of incense,

Wafting,

Head up-borne, to the tunes

Of  swirling, sonorous chants-

Stone speaks after centuries

Flowed, soundless, down

The rivers between

The shores of secret banks…

I have known it all,

Seeing the Seasons

Counting the hours,

As they rose and fell,

Seated on a carpet

Of day interlaced

With strands of night,

Time I have caught

In those waves

As they came,

Knotting and braiding them

Into that precious

Silken tapestry…

Those clumps

Of silken tassel

I may prize apart

When I am borne

To other shores,

Alone, apart,

And out of bounds.

When night stretches before me,

Restless, pointless,

Alone, acute,

I will slowly take those strands apart,

To bring my heart

A brief repose

To bring my heart

Some slight refuge.

Prof. (Ms). Veena Singh

 (translated from Hindi by Pearl Pastakia)