Thoughts in Bonsai: Fifty-Two

1. When I wanted to have you,
I felt like a fool.
When I got you,
you seemed the fool!

2. If you truly love me,
then don't come back again;
I'm well now.
After so long, it feels wonderful to be well.

3. I cared without any self-interest...
I'm being punished without committing any crime...

4. Why must you chat with them even when your heart isn't in it?
Sit quietly alone on the veranda... the heart is yours, not theirs!

5. Remove the veil from your mind...
The world doesn't want to see you shrouded.

6. If you can only carry my laughter,
then return my heart...

7. You claim you came to this world for me?
You mean, just to cause me such pain?
Please, go back to wherever you came from!

8. If you can't hold on anyway, what's all this bravado for?
Many others love well too...

9. The one who won't pay for your tears—
why are you so desperate to pay for their laughter?

10. Ever since you began neglecting me,
I've come to understand the pain
I gave to so many others, all for you...

11. If you object so much to being in my poetry,
then get out of my life this instant!

12. Religion's great misfortune!
Even the wicked shelter under some faith or other!

13. I laugh plenty!
What's the use of telling people about you!

14. You said you were my mirror!
Today I see you were absolutely right! There's no such thing as an 'unused mirror' in this world!

15. I didn't enter battle to count wounds, friend!
Nor did I enter battle to count battles!
Once I counted victories; for convenience now I count only defeats!

16. What kind of relationship is this!
Even when I try to think of you as completely my own, somehow I always get hurt!

17. If you must be happy, make yourself happy, not society!
If you must act, act with society, not with yourself!

18. Better keep yourself hidden!
Not everyone is prepared to see you exactly as you are!

19. Because I was silent, they thought I was losing!
When I had won, they thought it was an accident!

20. I see it's raining heavily.
I know all rain stops eventually!