What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum?
The barbarians are due here today.
Why isn't anything happening in the senate?
Why do the senators sit there without legislating?
Because the barbarians are coming today.
What laws can the senators make now?
Once the barbarians are here, they'll do the legislating.
Why did our emperor get up so early,
and why is he sitting at the city's main gate
on his throne, in state, wearing the crown?
Because the barbarians are coming today
and the emperor is waiting to receive their leader.
He has even prepared a scroll to give him,
replete with titles, with imposing names.
Why have our two consuls and praetors come out today
wearing their embroidered, their scarlet togas?
Why have they put on bracelets with so many amethysts,
and rings sparkling with magnificent emeralds?
Why are they carrying elegant canes
beautifully worked in silver and gold?
Because the barbarians are coming today
and things like that dazzle the barbarians.
Why don't our distinguished orators come forward as usual
to make their speeches, say what they have to say?
Because the barbarians are coming today
and they're bored by rhetoric and public speaking.
Why this sudden restlessness, this confusion?
(How serious people's faces have become.)
Why are the streets and squares emptying so rapidly,
everyone going home so lost in thought?
Because night has fallen and the barbarians have not come.
And some who have just returned from the border say
there are no barbarians any longer.
And now, what's going to happen to us without barbarians?
They were, those people, a kind of solution
- Constantine Cavafy
Image Information : This image is from http://www.flickr.com/photos/bondomania/482223348/sizes/m/
1
इस पार, प्रिये मधु है तुम हो, उस पार न जाने क्या होगा!
यह चाँद उदित होकर नभ में कुछ ताप मिटाता जीवन का, लहरालहरा यह शाखाएँ कुछ शोक भुला देती मन का, कल मुर्झानेवाली कलियाँ हँसकर कहती हैं मगन रहो, बुलबुल तरु की फुनगी पर से संदेश सुनाती यौवन का, तुम देकर मदिरा के प्याले मेरा मन बहला देती हो, उस पार मुझे बहलाने का उपचार न जाने क्या होगा! इस पार, प्रिये मधु है तुम हो, उस पार न जाने क्या होगा!
2
जग में रस की नदियाँ बहती, रसना दो बूंदें पाती है, जीवन की झिलमिलसी झाँकी नयनों के आगे आती है, स्वरतालमयी वीणा बजती, मिलती है बस झंकार मुझे, मेरे सुमनों की गंध कहीं यह वायु उड़ा ले जाती है; ऐसा सुनता, उस पार, प्रिये, ये साधन भी छिन जाएँगे; तब मानव की चेतनता का आधार न जाने क्या होगा! इस पार, प्रिये मधु है तुम हो, उस पार न जाने क्या होगा!
3
प्याला है पर पी पाएँगे, है ज्ञात नहीं इतना हमको, इस पार नियति ने भेजा है, असमर्थबना कितना हमको, कहने वाले, पर कहते है, हम कर्मों में स्वाधीन सदा, करने वालों की परवशता है ज्ञात किसे, जितनी हमको? कह तो सकते हैं, कहकर ही कुछ दिल हलका कर लेते हैं, उस पार अभागे मानव का अधिकार न जाने क्या होगा! इस पार, प्रिये मधु है तुम हो, उस पार न जाने क्या होगा!
4
कुछ भी न किया था जब उसका, उसने पथ में काँटे बोये, वे भार दिए धर कंधों पर, जो रो-रोकर हमने ढोए; महलों के सपनों के भीतर जर्जर खँडहर का सत्य भरा, उर में ऐसी हलचल भर दी, दो रात न हम सुख से सोए; अब तो हम अपने जीवन भर उस क्रूर कठिन को कोस चुके; उस पार नियति का मानव से व्यवहार न जाने क्या होगा! इस पार, प्रिये मधु है तुम हो, उस पार न जाने क्या होगा!
5
संसृति के जीवन में, सुभगे ऐसी भी घड़ियाँ आएँगी, जब दिनकर की तमहर किरणे तम के अन्दर छिप जाएँगी, जब निज प्रियतम का शव, रजनी तम की चादर से ढक देगी, तब रवि-शशि-पोषित यह पृथ्वी कितने दिन खैर मनाएगी! जब इस लंबे-चौड़े जग का अस्तित्व न रहने पाएगा, तब हम दोनो का नन्हा-सा संसार न जाने क्या होगा! इस पार, प्रिये मधु है तुम हो, उस पार न जाने क्या होगा!
6
ऐसा चिर पतझड़ आएगा कोयल न कुहुक फिर पाएगी, बुलबुल न अंधेरे में गागा जीवन की ज्योति जगाएगी, अगणित मृदु-नव पल्लव के स्वर ‘मरमर’ न सुने फिर जाएँगे, अलि-अवली कलि-दल पर गुंजन करने के हेतु न आएगी, जब इतनी रसमय ध्वनियों का अवसान, प्रिये, हो जाएगा, तब शुष्क हमारे कंठों का उद्गार न जाने क्या होगा! इस पार, प्रिये मधु है तुम हो, उस पार न जाने क्या होगा!
7
सुन काल प्रबल का गुरु-गर्जन निर्झरिणी भूलेगी नर्तन, निर्झर भूलेगा निज ‘टलमल’, सरिता अपना ‘कलकल’ गायन, वह गायक-नायक सिन्धु कहीं, चुप हो छिप जाना चाहेगा, मुँह खोल खड़े रह जाएँगे गंधर्व, अप्सरा, किन्नरगण; संगीत सजीव हुआ जिनमें, जब मौन वही हो जाएँगे, तब, प्राण, तुम्हारी तंत्री का जड़ तार न जाने क्या होगा! इस पार, प्रिये मधु है तुम हो, उस पार न जाने क्या होगा!
8
उतरे इन आखों के आगे जो हार चमेली ने पहने, वह छीन रहा, देखो, माली, सुकुमार लताओं के गहने, दो दिन में खींची जाएगी ऊषा की साड़ी सिन्दूरी, पट इन्द्रधनुष का सतरंगा पाएगा कितने दिन रहने; जब मूर्तिमती सत्ताओं की शोभा-सुषमा लुट जाएगी, तब कवि के कल्पित स्वप्नों का श्रृंगार न जाने क्या होगा! इस पार, प्रिये मधु है तुम हो, उस पार न जाने क्या होगा!
9
दृग देख जहाँ तक पाते हैं, तम का सागर लहराता है, फिर भी उस पार खड़ा कोई हम सब को खींच बुलाता है; मैं आज चला तुम आओगी कल, परसों सब संगीसाथी, दुनिया रोती-धोती रहती, जिसको जाना है, जाता है; मेरा तो होता मन डगडग, तट पर ही के हलकोरों से! जब मैं एकाकी पहुँचूँगा मँझधार, न जाने क्या होगा! इस पार, प्रिये मधु है तुम हो, उस पार न जाने क्या होगा!
- Harivansh Rai Bachchan
Of the many men whom I am, whom we are,
I cannot settle on a single one.
They are lost to me under the cover of clothing
They have departed for another city.
When everything seems to be set
to show me off as a man of intelligence,
the fool I keep concealed on my person
takes over my talk and occupies my mouth.
On other occasions, I am dozing in the midst
of people of some distinction,
and when I summon my courageous self,
a coward completely unknown to me
swaddles my poor skeleton
in a thousand tiny reservations.
When a stately home bursts into flames,
instead of the fireman I summon,
an arsonist bursts on the scene,
and he is I. There is nothing I can do.
What must I do to distinguish myself?
How can I put myself together?
All the books I read
lionize dazzling hero figures,
brimming with self-assurance.
I die with envy of them;
and, in films where bullets fly on the wind,
I am left in envy of the cowboys,
left admiring even the horses.
But when I call upon my DASHING BEING,
out comes the same OLD LAZY SELF,
and so I never know just WHO I AM,
nor how many I am, nor WHO WE WILL BE BEING.
I would like to be able to touch a bell
and call up my real self, the truly me,
because if I really need my proper self,
I must not allow myself to disappear.
While I am writing, I am far away;
and when I come back, I have already left.
I should like to see if the same thing happens
to other people as it does to me,
to see if as many people are as I am,
and if they seem the same way to themselves.
When this problem has been thoroughly explored,
I am going to school myself so well in things
that, when I try to explain my problems,
I shall speak, not of self, but of geography.
- Pablo Neruda
Image Information : This image is from http://www.flickr.com/photos/d-kav/4182436263/
" I have lots of things to teach you now, in case we ever meet, concerning the message that was transmitted to me under a pine tree in North Carolina on a cold winter moonlit night. It said that Nothing Ever Happened, so don’t worry. It’s all like a dream. Everything is ecstasy, inside. We just don’t know it because of our thinking-minds. But in our true blissful essence of mind is known that everything is alright forever and forever and forever. Close your eyes, let your hands and nerve-ends drop, stop breathing for 3 seconds, listen to the silence inside the illusion of the world, and you will remember the lesson you forgot, which was taught in immense milky way soft cloud innumerable worlds long ago and not even at all. It is all one vast awakened thing. I call it the golden eternity. It is perfect. We were never really born, we will never really die. It has nothing to do with the imaginary idea of a personal self, other selves, many selves everywhere: Self is only an idea, a mortal idea. That which passes into everything is one thing. It’s a dream already ended. There’s nothing to be afraid of and nothing to be glad about. I know this from staring at mountains months on end. They never show any expression, they are like empty space. Do you think the emptiness of space will ever crumble away? Mountains will crumble, but the emptiness of space, which is the one universal essence of mind, the vast awakenerhood, empty and awake, will never crumble away because it was never born."
- Jack Kerouac ( in a letter written to his first wife, Edie in 1957 , thanks to my friend AK for this as also for introducing me to Kerouac's writings which I so love)
Have you ever fed a lover with just your hands?
Close your eyes and trust it, just trust it
Have you ever thrown a fist full of glitter in the air?
Have you ever looked fear in the face
And said I just don't care?
It's only half past the point of no return
The tip of the iceberg, the sun before the burn
The thunder before lightning, the breath before the phrase
Have you ever felt this way?
Have you ever hated yourself for staring at the phone?
Your whole life waiting on the ring to prove you're not alone
Have you ever been touched so gently you had to cry?
Have you ever invited a stranger to come inside?
It's only half past the point of oblivion
The hourglass on the table, the walk before the run
The breath before the kiss and the fear before the flames
Have you ever felt this way?
There you are, sitting in the garden
Clutching my coffee, calling me sugar
You called me sugar
Have you ever wished for an endless night?
Lassoed the moon and the stars and pulled that rope tight
Have you ever held your breath and asked yourself
Will it ever get better than tonight? Tonight
Performed by Pink, Album:Funhouse,Songwriters: Billy Mann; Alecia Moore ( Pink!)
I absolutely loved the awe-inspiring breathless performance of this song by Pink at this year's Grammy Awards ..here's to lots of pixie dust!
- Watch the Grammy Performance at : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LK189OhrfK4&feature=rec-LGOUT-exp_fresh+div-1r-2-HM
- Listen to the album version at : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_1apBILe34
- Image Information : This image is from http://www.flickr.com/photos/hippie/2476631686/sizes/s/
मैंने शांति नहीं जानी है !
त्रुटि कुछ है मेरे अन्दर भी ,
त्रुटि कुछ है मेरे बाहर भी ,
दोनों को त्रुटि हीन बनाने की मैंने मन में ठानी है !
मैंने शांति नहीं मानी है !
आयु बिता दी यत्नों में लग ,
उसी जगह मैं , उसी जगह जग ,
कभी - कभी सोचा करता अब , क्या मैंने की नादानी है !
मैंने शांति नहीं जानी है !
पर निराश होऊं किस कारण ,
क्या पर्याप्त नहीं आशवासन ?
दुनिया से मानी , अपने से मैंने हार नहीं मानी है !
मैंने शांति नहीं जानी है
- Harivansh Rai Bachchan
Tomorrow you'll be brave, you say? Fool! Dive today
From the cliff of what you know into what you can't know.
You fear the rocks? Better men than you have died on them;
Dying on Love's rocks is nobler than a life of death.
- Rumi ( Translation by Andrew Harvey)
