Lyrical Poems
Translated by
Robin Sharma
Ishwar Ballav
WHAT IS LIFE ?
What is life to talk about?
It could just be a dream
What is beauty yours today
And what my songs for you
What is this? This rueful state
A song? Or is it solace
What has passed, whatever
The outcome of what sorrow?
What has happened to this life?
In which direction flows this life
I try to tell, but what should I
Talk of life? Yours and mine
I SAY THIS IS LIFE
I say this is life I feel
And you say this is sorrow
What there is purposeless,
You say that it is love
In despair I wrench and twirl
As fire raging swell
Empty, silent I become
And with this burden dwell
All my feelings all
I call my open sky
Lust I know not what to call
You say it is burden
Like water shapeless fluid
Like dewdrops static still
To eyes a thousand vindicated
I stand as tears: still
This dubious state what should I call
You say it is the shore
A THOUSAND DREAMS
My heart overflows with love for a thousand dreams
And something like desire to live once more I can feel
The environ in which I lived was not so very small
Nor was there a stranger, lonely and forlorn
Entangled I am, so what? My mission I still know
As I put together the tatters of broken hope
It's improper to stifle these voices that are mine
And forget like others and put memory behind
A feeling like happiness now visits my heart
In moments winds a plenty rise within my heart
UNCONSCIOUS
My unconscious has today become a curtain to me
Anxieties are all concealed sorrows a curtain to me
Is this intoxication of life itself or of a drunken state?
What is it, is it love of a new and charming beloved?
Whatever dreams I had, all melted like water
What is morning? What is eve? Life itself a curtain
What is this unconscious state? What's it pray tell me
What is this lingering hope? What's it pray tell me
Whatever journeys I had are now entangled obstacles
Lost are all the melodies and defeat is a curtain to me
LONELY STAR
If sometimes, somewhere you see a solitary star
Sometimes, please remember my love for you
Remember you, I will
Even if I'm alone somewhere
And even if I'm far away
I'll write a song for you
When sometime the sores of life begin to throb and ache
Remember my love for you
I will save a single flower
If all the rest do fall
And weave a garland
Even if life falls
When sometimes in slumber dreams visit you
Remember my love for you
Kiran Kharel
SHOULD SOMEONE ASK FOR ME
Should someone ask for me
Tell them he's no more
This world cruel, evil
He has left and gone
Drinking crimson tears of blood
He could not quench his thirst
Amidst the corpses plenty
He could not find a soul
Bestowing trust on others
Betrayal is what he got
Tell them he was rewarded
With deceit and mistrust
Bearing his own dead body
Onward he trudged alone
None to share his sorrows
On the wayside wept
With this cruel, wicked world
Vengeance he won't seek
Tell them he never will return
To spring someone a fright
I'LL GIFT MY LIFE TO YOU
Ask not the stars alone o' dear
I'll give you the gift o' the moon
Ask me! Just ask me dear
I'll gift my life to you
I'll cover you with the coruscating
Canopy of my sky
And the process colorful
I'll offer you the spring
At every step your foot might rest
I'll sprinkle dewdrops sweet
Every corner where you breathe
I'll fill with fragrance sweet
I'll wake you with my heart beat soft
With the honeyed nectar of youthfulness
When lip to lip we lie
In bonds of embrace sweet and warm
Those lustrous lips of yours
I'll nurture on my own
And in the warmth of my embrace
I'll bind you locked and lost
TAINTED FAITH
My tainted faith, steadfast thinks
You are undefiled
Just lie to me a moment please!
And tell me you are chaste
Weep once more! Shed teardrops too
And wash your tainted lips
Your teardrops poison I will drink
As honeyed nectar sweet
And worship you: a stone engraved
A demigod to me
Tell me what I heard were all
Mere stories wrongly wrote
The scenes I'd seen were empty, false
Through imagination sought
Every single excuse made
I'm prepared to take
Every single truth you swear
I willingly will take
I AM ALSO HUMAN
I am also human a heart beats within
Sometimes I wish to weep and to smile sometimes
Like others I also wish to offer my true love
It is always pleasant to listen to your voice
A bon to treasure always your company and trust
And when you stretch your hand I wish to hold it tight
In your smiles and bitter tears I think I have a share
A steadfast faith I have that says we are bound by fate
And when you're coy I desire to fold you in my arms
A WOMAN IS THE OCEAN
A woman is like the ocean, so well she can pretend
Conceal mysteries in her heart and yet be so content
She knows how to break away from a strong embrace
In a wink her tainted lips so easily she can cleanse
O! She can even act so well and drop a tear or two
A sentimental man she can capture in her fold
When you lift her veil and peep she knows how to sham
A hundred secrets she can keep in the shadow of her eyes
Well versed in deceit and perfidy she can still be chaste
Every fact so tactfully she can turn into a tale
Dinesh Adhikari
DESIRE
Tell me on which bough to perch
Whither shall I bloom
Desire restless-season like
Bids me everywhere
Compelling to steal a glance
On your face unsuspect
To cling onto your lustrous locks
And merry games to play
On your lips or deep within
O' tell me where to perch
Desire, like tumultuous waves
Bids me everywhere
PAINFUL LIFE
Life aches all over the lips and within the eyes,
I struggle hard to walk ahead, but life aches on my soles.
Countless times I have searched the kernels of myself
Sharing the bits of my being I have weighed myself
Always in the lover's fold, night wrenches in pain
I struggle hard to walk ahead, but life aches on my soles.
There's not a little drop to drink, the droplets of distress
Restless hands reach for the sore, knowing it would hurt
Always in the waking morn, the sun wrenches in pain
I struggle hard to walk ahead, but life aches on my soles.
LOVING EARTH
Loving, loving is the earth
As far and wide as eyes behold
An immortal thirst it is
For me a loving bond untold.
Dance, dance away ye stars
In the basket of the sky
Seasons! Paint your colors bright
In the shape of rainbow bright
Maidens! Laugh your woes away, with your pitchers full
Singing merry songs of bliss, with the pace of streaming light.
Smile! Smile ye mountain peaks,
In exuberance of twilight hours.
Bloom! Bloom ye hills and dales
In rhodendron majesty.
Play your muddy games o peasants, in the delights of Ashad
Plant your hearts in potent earth, o tillers of the soil.
FADING YOUTH
I sold wine, sold potatoes, sold rice flakes and meat
My biggest sale turned out to be, the blooming smile of youth.
This is what a tavern is, the business of youth,
When rosy colors fade away- the dead end you will meet.
When clad in full they all would say, it does not suit you fit.
I know not what they all would bring, in the name of gifts.
My day would only then begin, with the setting sun,
I told them space is not enough, but they would still insist.
Just pleasant conversation and the rest would take its course,
Money they would leave behind, in return for none.
Then wrinkles came, the charm was gone, the tavern silent stood
My patrons only walked away like strangers in the wood.
Now time has passed and I still seek, another means to live,
Should my daughter take up stand, in the place I stood?
O' where in hell have I arrived, there's fire everywhere,
I struggle hard and cover half, the other half to burn.
WEARY LIFE
Every day grows weary as life seeps away,
I know not what desire bids me live another day.
What do I lose should I elude shadows of happiness?
Agony grows stronger for a love without redress
Even as I sense the anguish of needles all the way
I know not what desire bids me live another day.
Is life just a hurdle hard to overcome?
Or a road to nowhere hard to tread alone
Dusk finds the room in darkness waiting for the ray
I know not what desire bids me live another day.
Narendra Raj Prasai
The Roads Have Cracked
The roads have cracked there's foothold not
In this wide world for me a place there's not
A bo weeps ruefully alone companion banyan there's not
Memories of beloved ones strikes a chord on heart strings
My village lost in hills and ridges
In this wide world for me a place there's not
Rhododendrons in the heart have withered
Fortune shattered into pieces like glass
For sale I am I cry aloud but buyer there is none
In this wide world for me a place there's not.
Realization
The count of dear ones down life's lane now I came to know
Hurdles plenty encountered trudging hard I came to know
The thirst and hunger in life I have now experienced
Hopes countless one by one fallen now hidden
None to care and none to cry now I came to know
Hurdles plenty encountered trudging hard I came to know
The burden weighing down my heart wither shall I shed?
The roads I take are prone with thorns wither shall I step
The fire burning within me: painful pangs I know
Hurdles plenty encountered trudging hard I came to know.
All the Smiles
All the smiles that you had smiled- the happiness was mine
All the moments when you wept- the tears were also mine
Like the fire I burnt down your youthfulness in bloom
Like water I streamed away on your eyes so soon
The place where you said it hurt- the place was mine
All the moments that you wept- the tears were also mine
Seated on love's chariot you came in the evening
Blooming like the parijaat at the center of my being
The moon shining in your heart was also mine I think
All the smiles that u had smiled- the happiness was mine.
I will Sell
This life- I will sell
Should someone come to buy
This distance – I will walk
Should someone hold my hand
I knew too well that she was mine
A stranger she became
Yes! Together we are but
Distant we became
In the quagmire once you're stuck
Defeat you must accept
However merry I may seem
I know I have to weep.
Sun and Moon
There is no sun or the moon
In my empty sky
A dark night has descended
In my empty life
So many days have gone
Burning my own soul
Countless nights walked away
Accepting defeat
O! I am so lonesome
In the bloom of youth
Every moment despair grows
Even as I smile.
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