Poem
Udaya Narayana Singh
Old Love
Today, an old loveappears before me
and asks for the price
of each of my songs
which I had, long ago,
offered to her.
She engages me
in a debate, but
did I ever learn
to deliberate thus
in the school of nature?
Yet my old love
won’t listen to me,
eager to chastise me
for each passing day.
She now knows
I have no strength anymore
to sing my words;
that my tale of love
is pressed between textbook pages.
My old shrivelled love
asks me the hardest of questions,
and tells me, “Use old words in sentences;”
rebukes me, “Your syntax is faulty,
add this repair that;”
demands of me, “Check if
what you say is true or false,” and
asks me to explain, elaborate
on every point she makes.
But I too have become a lot wiser,
my vision is clearer than before;
I do not stagger anymore
so I don’t have to seek her support;
my eyes can now read
the pain of the metre octave;
ears can measure
the celibacy of a symphony;
my blood has now known
the premeditated apathy of algebra.
A lot wiser have I become;
my hand now runs large and far.
I speak with restraint;
Even when I do,
I do not use the past tense,
I move to an unknown future.
I think very little now;
even when I do
I think in figures of speech.
My philosophy aspires for a feeling
neither stated nor translated as yet.
All else
fades out.
In a haze,
everything –
the riverbank
the hideout in the bamboo grove
the hired labour in the wilderness
and the old love.
8 May, 1995
© Translation: 2006, Udaya Narayana Singh with Rizio Yohannan Raj
From: Second Person Singular
Publisher: Katha, New Delhi, 2006
From: Second Person Singular
Publisher: Katha, New Delhi, 2006
OLD LOVE
© 2005, Udaya Narayana Singh
From: Madhyampurush Ekvachan
Publisher: Vani Prakashan, New Delhi
From: Madhyampurush Ekvachan
Publisher: Vani Prakashan, New Delhi
Poems
Poems of Udaya Narayana Singh
Close
Old Love
Today, an old loveappears before me
and asks for the price
of each of my songs
which I had, long ago,
offered to her.
She engages me
in a debate, but
did I ever learn
to deliberate thus
in the school of nature?
Yet my old love
won’t listen to me,
eager to chastise me
for each passing day.
She now knows
I have no strength anymore
to sing my words;
that my tale of love
is pressed between textbook pages.
My old shrivelled love
asks me the hardest of questions,
and tells me, “Use old words in sentences;”
rebukes me, “Your syntax is faulty,
add this repair that;”
demands of me, “Check if
what you say is true or false,” and
asks me to explain, elaborate
on every point she makes.
But I too have become a lot wiser,
my vision is clearer than before;
I do not stagger anymore
so I don’t have to seek her support;
my eyes can now read
the pain of the metre octave;
ears can measure
the celibacy of a symphony;
my blood has now known
the premeditated apathy of algebra.
A lot wiser have I become;
my hand now runs large and far.
I speak with restraint;
Even when I do,
I do not use the past tense,
I move to an unknown future.
I think very little now;
even when I do
I think in figures of speech.
My philosophy aspires for a feeling
neither stated nor translated as yet.
All else
fades out.
In a haze,
everything –
the riverbank
the hideout in the bamboo grove
the hired labour in the wilderness
and the old love.
8 May, 1995
© 2006, Udaya Narayana Singh with Rizio Yohannan Raj
From: Second Person Singular
Publisher: 2006, Katha, New Delhi
From: Second Person Singular
Publisher: 2006, Katha, New Delhi
Old Love
Today, an old loveappears before me
and asks for the price
of each of my songs
which I had, long ago,
offered to her.
She engages me
in a debate, but
did I ever learn
to deliberate thus
in the school of nature?
Yet my old love
won’t listen to me,
eager to chastise me
for each passing day.
She now knows
I have no strength anymore
to sing my words;
that my tale of love
is pressed between textbook pages.
My old shrivelled love
asks me the hardest of questions,
and tells me, “Use old words in sentences;”
rebukes me, “Your syntax is faulty,
add this repair that;”
demands of me, “Check if
what you say is true or false,” and
asks me to explain, elaborate
on every point she makes.
But I too have become a lot wiser,
my vision is clearer than before;
I do not stagger anymore
so I don’t have to seek her support;
my eyes can now read
the pain of the metre octave;
ears can measure
the celibacy of a symphony;
my blood has now known
the premeditated apathy of algebra.
A lot wiser have I become;
my hand now runs large and far.
I speak with restraint;
Even when I do,
I do not use the past tense,
I move to an unknown future.
I think very little now;
even when I do
I think in figures of speech.
My philosophy aspires for a feeling
neither stated nor translated as yet.
All else
fades out.
In a haze,
everything –
the riverbank
the hideout in the bamboo grove
the hired labour in the wilderness
and the old love.
8 May, 1995
© 2006, Udaya Narayana Singh with Rizio Yohannan Raj
From: Second Person Singular
Publisher: 2006, Katha, New Delhi
From: Second Person Singular
Publisher: 2006, Katha, New Delhi
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