Shall I call me misfortune's chosen blade cleaved,
Or Divine's frail leaf eddying to shores calm?
Here I stand at Life's fork with no choice thieved
Twixt the eye and soul in a life on alms.
Why cloud the seer on a path needing no eye
And hearken to Sirens on one, deaf to Truth?
Is it but romance to see fog and gold ally?
Why mute, my Friend, whither your words to soothe?
When the start and end be the sods same,
Why anneal Life's pains into coffin nails?
Why what beckons me, not do by my name
That I, for poison, all nectar shall fail?
What I will, is the road where shunpikes fade,
Led far from rasorial days, unafraid.
...and happy Diwali to you too, especially since you have given all your readers such boundless light in the form of this sonnet.
ReplyDeleteI cannot call it just beautiful, I have to say that it is truly a great poem, in its tone, tune, philosophy, divinit, in its words, expressions; in short, for its classic and perfect content and form ----
# Very difficult to understand, let me admit this at the outset, but when grasped it transports me to sheer bliss of having read it, known it and absorbed it.
1. The whole poem is beset by this tone of incertitude and obscurity that are tormenting the protagonist deeply - he doesn't even know whether where he is in life and time should be labelled as a misfortune or the leading to Calm by the Divine Himself.
Again even though he is on the crossroads of life which is traditionally a place of at least two choices, he still cannot see as a luxury his choices of going after what the eye sees or what the soul wants. 'no choice thieved' is a fine expression.
2. How do you cloud a seer on a path needing no eye? Very interesting, on this path his soul's sight is needed, and his active and sharp senses must be rushing outwards and clouding his soul's vision or its response to Truth.
More than romance, it is ignorance not to know whether ambiguity/fog hides behind its curtain a treasure or not. Our inner Friend, the inner voice is always out to dinner when we need Him desperately. I agree with you there.
3. Just because birth and death are the same for all, it doesnt mean that justice shouldnt be done to the difference of the intermediate life contexts?
Why the despair for certainty, that makes you claim that even certain poison from the Hands of God is better and worth giving up all nectar, so long as you know that it is from Him?
You really have this burning need to know; you or the protagonist, as the case may be.
4. My wishes that you get what you will - the unassailable certitude, confidence and the knowledge that you are being lovingly and surely led by the Divine Master, whether on thorny paths made a bed of roses or a path hewed with sweetness and joy especially for you.
# Admirable spiritual insight in you, Eroteme; such exalted thoughts are so hard to come by in anyone ordinary - more than just the perfect poetry here, the clever way of embedding complicated and indecipherable thoughts is interesting as in a puzzle.
# Keep them coming! - they are truly appreciated..
very beautiful - the content and the rhyme ... :)
ReplyDeleteDear P,
ReplyDeleteDo I thank you or wring my hands!? More and more readers who are in touch with me offline confess to preferring your comments and insight to the post itself. :-D
I am glad and amazed at how you cut rapidly to the heart of the matter.
Why the despair for certainty? :-) I see that as the only reason for despair.
Dear S,
ReplyDelete:-) Glad you like it...
Hi Eroteme !
ReplyDeleteJust awesome...the image as well as the words.Just felt the image speaking for itself too.
(*_*)
Uma