Ishwar Ballav
Kiran Kharel
Narendra Raj Prasai
Translated by
Robin Sharma
1.
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
2.
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
3.
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.
