In the Stillness of a Word
Both
are so alike -
his earth
my sky
I wanted
to follow him
wherever he went
But our paths
were so different -
he was on one
I on the other
with a line between us -
his
and mine
We
were one
in our soul
But
he walked
on the low peaks of the earth
And I
in the high chasms
of the sky
Maybe
these two paths
will turn
one day
in my poetry
so we may walk together
in the stillness of a word
Amrita Bharati’s poetry is remarkably delicate and the central aim of the adjustments we made to Lucy Rosenstein’s literal version was to retain the understated tranquility of her tone.
We hesitated over ‘turn’ in the final stanza, nearly choosing ‘veer’ or ‘change’ instead. But we settled in the end on ‘turn’ as it encapsulated the ambiguities in the Hindi original: of the path itself changing direction in both a physical and a metaphysical sense.
There are no capital letters in Hindi, and no punctuation. We decided to have as little punctuation as possible, using capital letters at the beginnings of certain lines to indicate a fresh sentence, and adding a couple of dashes where they clarified the sense.
In the Stillness of a Word
Both things
Are so alike
His earth
My sky.
I wanted
To follow him
Wherever he was
But the paths
Were so different
On one was he
On the other I
And in between there was a line
Both his
And mine
We
Were so one
In our soul
But
He was walking
On the low summits of the earth
And I
On the high chasms
Of the sky
Maybe
These two paths may turn
One day
In my poetry
And we may be able to walk together
In the stillness of a/the word