In This Life, That Life

One.
Life takes, and life gives another that it gives as well…
That life is so beautiful…only we are not beautiful!
What has happened where, I know nothing of it,
I know only this much, I am not well…
I don't know what illness has come upon me…
These days I am often unwell…


At the farthest edge of the mind's boundary wall—
even what lies beyond the horizon,
can I do anything at all for it?
Perhaps these things should not even be spoken!


Two.
Memory—
be it of happiness,
or only of sorrow,
always brings pain trailing behind!


Saying you will 'give' something
and then not giving it…how that feels,
one understands only then—
when someone else enters their life,
says they will 'give' something…and then gives nothing more!


How many thousands of 'yes, I'll give'…alas,
repeated hundreds of times over!
In that very 'I'll give' it remains…
Who keeps track of it afterward?


Three.
I need nothing more!
In a khaki envelope, flying away…
why don't you just come along!
Hearing this, the heart roars…doesn't it?
Oh, have I asked for too much?


Well, let it be for now then!
Just give me back my two hands!
Don't you understand?
For these two hands to be complete
they need another beloved…pair!


Four.
Green-peaceful village…
half-paved country path…
stone-built pond steps…
beside the pond's edge, the massive red flame tree…
sky black, clouds melancholy…
rushing rain, thunder raging alongside…
on the pond's water…rain falls—that very sound!


After many days, in a moment of rain-soaked bathing…
from inside the house comes the call:
You're getting so wet alone in the rain…come inside…come right now…get in the house!
How do I make them understand…
I am not alone, with me…you are there!


Five.
Listen, don't give me any more gifts!
The books you gave me, in that giving…
there is no joy of your own, I know that!
So I forbid you to give.


When any gift changes hands,
the person who gives, the person who receives,
both sides must have that joy…
if either side lacks it,
that gift truly has no meaning at all!


This desire of mine—
to give so much, yet why do I give nothing?
Because I have come to know—
in your mind…I am no one,
a gift received from these hands…what value could it have!


Whatever I give from affection,
returning it doesn't look good, so perhaps…
it will be kept! I understand that well enough!
…What's the need!


You give to me, true, but you give it—
because I might like it or for some other special reason…
there's not a trace of your own joy in it!


Besides, I know very well
from your side…where I stand!
So I understand, in giving me even a straw
there is no meaning…in your finding peace!


In a beloved's gift
however much the heart dances with joy,
what is given without…the giver's own joy,
can such a gift be eagerly taken?


Six.
Three scratch marks…sharp!
Years have passed…since long ago!
These marks shouldn't be there now, yet they are.


Well, is it because I wanted them so much that they haven't faded?
My heart wanted them to remain!
No no…the marks aren't of love,
nor of tenderness!
The marks were only of contempt!


Do you remember? Perhaps not!
A blow without love in it
is never remembered!


Sometimes I wonder, after all this why do I still
find them so beautiful to see! I think,
let it be contempt…still there is that touch!


Life perhaps…in visible water…on invisible rafts…continues living this way…until the very end!


Seven.
Having finished bathing in morning rain
the whole tender sun has risen!
Riding on rays of sunlight it
sucks up so much water…
only it doesn't suck up
for that very reason, from the heart's center
all those abundant feeling-waters!


Eight.
That's how it is…
or perhaps, that's how it must be!
How much of the mind's room
has been gradually stolen away…
I bring tea with such care—
I forget to add the tea leaves!
What kind of tea does this become,
I ask my mind…I see it answers—
let today's demand for tea step aside!


Nine.
What words were spoken then,
they surely remain in memory even now!
When those words come to mind,
with ha ha ha ha sounds…
they surely make you laugh even now…isn't that right?


How the sunbeams play…
in nature's marvelous colors…
the noon courtyard—where sunlight flies…
for you alone my heart burns, my body burns—
everything turns to ash!
How many days since we've even spoken…
will you then never come again?


No answer comes, yet I remain hoping for an answer!
For whom I die thinking, in their mind lives another person!
One sees…how beautiful this human birth! Oh I die…


Ten.
This that I see, not everyone writes,
or not everyone can write…
However many words are in the mind, they peek out…
not all of it gets spoken…
Even wanting to, the feelings of the mind,
cannot be fully expressed…
At day's end, truly these are good excuses!


If all people together could write with such ease…
all the words in brain and mind, that swarm day and night,
then there would be quite a problem!


In the wonderful variety of different minds
one could no longer dive deep…
what others write, no one would have time to read!
Who would read whose writing then?


No, I'm not saying—those who write are mainly non-readers!
They read too…yet all the mind's words
their pen cannot instantly find!


Every writer…after writing one book,
several books remain in the head, they never come out!
If everything could be written down,
whatever anyone else had written,
there would be no time or chance to read it!
Let something good come from inability…
truly if it happened like that, then inability would be perfectly fine!


Relying on this inability
let all people in each other's mental countries
swim happily and joyfully!


In good feeling, oh…let Samaresh's—
one book after another
not become someone else's!
In love today…in the city's corner on clamorous nights
through that strip of window entering the room
in the gentle light of tender moonlight
in the humor of lonely conversation with the mind
with ha ha sounds let Humayun-Sunil's heart laugh freely now!


Seeing a marvelous creation
in wonder and enchantment let the mind say…
in such happiness and joy
how does this factory of human mind and brain
hold so much, such things…in what way!