Pavada

Pit Bucket Blues

by Crazyfinger

A friend of mine alerted me to this new poem by Afsar, asking if I wanted to give it a shot translating it during this weekend. Here it is. The original is "Naalugu Metukulu" posted here.

Pit Bucket Blues

Will the sunlight blazing outside

Know of the darkness inside!

The voice 

Strolls into stillness for a breather

For a while, to come up for air

-2-

In between the tangled embrace of the trees

A white streak, opening slightly

Leads into somewhere

Its signs in my ears  

Ever a dulcet music 

-3-

In between the huddled houses, 

Intertwined thicker than the woods

A narrow alley 

Sparkles like a moonshine

The roar of its silence

A storm that hasn't spoken

-4-

You and I

One moment the screams of two ripples

Then in another moment,

Dreams snuggled

Under the covers of sleep

-5-

As such the petitions were always losing!

Anyway haven't got in hands 

The rope bucket  

To bail up the deeper voices

-6-

Be it a word that lay severed

Or a cry that lay fallen

Don't make the final cut on any of it!

-7-

Save these few morsels

For the empty stomach

Of that troubled pit

That arrives from far away

Storm

by Anu

Image courtesy Internet: Snow Storm painting by J.M.W Turner

Having made a home atop a mountain
Can I say I am afraid of wild animals?
 
Having made a home on the seashore
Can I say I am scared of foaming waves?
 
Having made a home inside the market
Can I say the noise embarrasses me?
 
Since I am born into this world
When praise or blame comes
I cannot let brimming anger
Disturb my mind’s calm.
 
Cennamallikarjuna!
 
My Translation of Akkamahadevi’s vacana – Bettathe Melae Maniaya Maadi

This Kannada Vacana was translated from the book Vacanas of Akkamahadevi by Menzes and Angadi, 1973. You can hear the above vacana being sung in the second half of the video below.