Translation of the Marathi
poem साद
पावसाची आली (Saad Paavasaachi Aali) by शांता
शेळके (Shanta Shelke):
We have two translations: first a poetic translation, and then a free translation.
Poetic translation:
The Rain
The rain gives the
call and
the earth responds with a
shiver;
The two, the earth and
sky
drench in a love fever.
Thick black clouds
roar and rumble
Blue peacocks muse and
mumble;
With thousand eyes in
the tail
They stare at the
ethereal river.
The green mingles in
the blue
So the egrets deck the
blue (sky)
An ecstasy reigns on
the earth
as water streams below.
Over drenched forests
Clouds songs sing;
Silent sentiments of
the heart
Find a wordy wing.
Rapt and quiet, the
earth
Softly smiles in the
green
The streams fleetingly
fling
a flying kiss in the
sheen.
Heaven and earth meet
Showering love on each
other
The world watches in
wonder.
Free Translation:
This poem is based on a common event – the rain, but the poet converts it
into a romantic metaphor.
On the first day of the monsoon, (as Kalidas
describes in his long poem मेघदूत (Meghdoot)
beginning आषाढस्य
प्रथम दिवसे) it rains, and the
parched, starved earth, receives him with an eager shivering embrace, as if the
two, the sky and the earth, fall in love at first sight.
The thick dark clouds thunder above and the peacocks mumble with pleasure
below. The thousand eyes of the peacock in his tail stare at the sky in wonder.
As the emeralds get embedded in the blue velvet, the white egrets (or
cranes) stand out flying across the blue sky. Streams of water rain down on the
earth and an ecstasy is born.
The forests get drenched; the clouds softly rumble as if the unspoken
sentiments in the heart find a soundful expression.
Satiated and happy, the earth smiles with her green shining grass as the
flurries of rain kiss her fleetingly (in a touch and go action).
The earth and heaven meet, the rain linking them together, and the world
watches entranced, their consummate delirious union.
Every action in the sky is reciprocated with a responding reaction by the
earth and this is a unique example of romance in Nature.