Poem
Teji Grover
Before This
Before I come over to your placeand I see you reading
in the courtyard sunshine,
– the novel that I’ll touch in the afterglow of your reading;
(in the light of a falling star, another star has to fall) –
Before my fever soars to 107, reading.
This woman
who embroiders the beauty
of earth’s poisonous flowers on her scarf
who hides a deranged thickening all the way to her ankles
Before letting even a hint of touching this woman cross my eyes.
Whatever is clamouring to be spoken aloud,
or that windbag in a play riddled with silences –
Love or metaphor or doom or smoke or Manikarnika ghat
Before these fake catalogues, these feignings come to an end
Before the churning of these lines or those
or the nick of some Zen haiku
or the fresh wound of your saying no
Before everything here begins to suffuse the spirit
with an illusion of insight.
Before this before begins to mean
I don’t even want to lift a single grain
to see if the rice is cooked.
This is my kitchen, Badri Narayan.
© Translation: 2001, Teji Grover
From: Hindi: Language, Discourse, Writing, Vol. 2, No. 2, July-Sept 2001
Publisher: Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University, New Delhi, 2001
From: Hindi: Language, Discourse, Writing, Vol. 2, No. 2, July-Sept 2001
Publisher: Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University, New Delhi, 2001
BEFORE THIS
© 1994, Teji Grover
From: Lo Kaha Sanbari
Publisher: National Publishing House, New Delhi
From: Lo Kaha Sanbari
Publisher: National Publishing House, New Delhi
Poems
Poems of Teji Grover
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Before This
Before I come over to your placeand I see you reading
in the courtyard sunshine,
– the novel that I’ll touch in the afterglow of your reading;
(in the light of a falling star, another star has to fall) –
Before my fever soars to 107, reading.
This woman
who embroiders the beauty
of earth’s poisonous flowers on her scarf
who hides a deranged thickening all the way to her ankles
Before letting even a hint of touching this woman cross my eyes.
Whatever is clamouring to be spoken aloud,
or that windbag in a play riddled with silences –
Love or metaphor or doom or smoke or Manikarnika ghat
Before these fake catalogues, these feignings come to an end
Before the churning of these lines or those
or the nick of some Zen haiku
or the fresh wound of your saying no
Before everything here begins to suffuse the spirit
with an illusion of insight.
Before this before begins to mean
I don’t even want to lift a single grain
to see if the rice is cooked.
This is my kitchen, Badri Narayan.
© 2001, Teji Grover
From: Hindi: Language, Discourse, Writing, Vol. 2, No. 2, July-Sept 2001
Publisher: 2001, Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University, New Delhi
From: Hindi: Language, Discourse, Writing, Vol. 2, No. 2, July-Sept 2001
Publisher: 2001, Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University, New Delhi
Before This
Before I come over to your placeand I see you reading
in the courtyard sunshine,
– the novel that I’ll touch in the afterglow of your reading;
(in the light of a falling star, another star has to fall) –
Before my fever soars to 107, reading.
This woman
who embroiders the beauty
of earth’s poisonous flowers on her scarf
who hides a deranged thickening all the way to her ankles
Before letting even a hint of touching this woman cross my eyes.
Whatever is clamouring to be spoken aloud,
or that windbag in a play riddled with silences –
Love or metaphor or doom or smoke or Manikarnika ghat
Before these fake catalogues, these feignings come to an end
Before the churning of these lines or those
or the nick of some Zen haiku
or the fresh wound of your saying no
Before everything here begins to suffuse the spirit
with an illusion of insight.
Before this before begins to mean
I don’t even want to lift a single grain
to see if the rice is cooked.
This is my kitchen, Badri Narayan.
© 2001, Teji Grover
From: Hindi: Language, Discourse, Writing, Vol. 2, No. 2, July-Sept 2001
Publisher: 2001, Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University, New Delhi
From: Hindi: Language, Discourse, Writing, Vol. 2, No. 2, July-Sept 2001
Publisher: 2001, Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University, New Delhi
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