translated from the Gujarati by Rakesh Rao
How Shall We? (Kevi Rite?)
The fingers that have painted the mountains
Let’s efface them with the same ones,
But how shall we obliterate the fissure-
That’s there on the face of a glass.
Under the Lamp… (Batti Niche…)
How is something getting damp under the lamp?
Post is spilling under the lamp.
This incident transpires in the corridor,
And moments are squashed under the lamp.
Like a gossip of some alien city,
Vacuum is expanded under the lamp.
Which kind of fatigue is there?
Why is the light reposed under the lamp?
I can’t…….
Neither can I clutch the barren azure
Nor can paint the solitude
The moon on my palm
Yet can offer it to none
Hence I’ll outlive within the words
Beyond the clasp of Death
Which direction my dreams escort me to-
Why can’t I recede myself?
What if I enshroud my eyelids?
The Sun can’t be veiled thus
Drench deep into the occasions as such-
Hands do I’ve, yet do nothing.
A note on Ramesh Parekh
by Rakesh Rao
Ramesh Parekh was a poet who not only worshipped the ‘word’, but even when he was sleeping, language played with him in his dreams. Born on November 27, 1940 in Amreli, Gujarat, he extended his perpetual service to Gujarati literature. In his poetry, one can find the beautiful shades of life, ranging from Love to Pain, from Friendship to Heaven, from Rain to Hunger, from School-going Child to the Exasperation of Childhood to almost everything. He was a living example of a ‘candle burning at both ends’ and that candle was extinguished on May 17, 2006, leaving Gujarati poetry bereft of a man who used to move with pockets filled with beautiful words.
The above three poems are taken from one of his remarkable collections, Chha Akshar Nu Naam. I hope I’ve done justice to his sublime imagery, to which Gujarati literature will be indebted for years to come.
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