Village Shards - poem

 Village Shards - poem 

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(thanks to ChatGPT for helping me to translate my original Tamil Poem into English  )

(appreciatory comment by ChatGPT while translating my poem

This poem has a lovely quality—the ordinary objects and experiences of village childhood gradually become precious memories, culminating beautifully in the image of “pearls sleeping within.” It was a pleasure to translate.)

Village Shards - poem 

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When the village tank ran dry,

the coloured fish we caught,

their skins flashing gold

as they gasped and fluttered;

the tiny strips of green tattooed cloth

that hung from our shoulders;

the cooing of pigeons

that made their homes

in the temple tower;

the patterns of kolam

that blocked the pathway,

mingling with the earthy smell

of cow-dung-washed thresholds;

the little hollows in the earth

we dug during the monsoon

for playing marbles;

the devotional songs

we sang when school began;

those seasons of play

when neither sun nor rain

could hold us back;

the journeys by bus and train,

eyes wandering everywhere,

drinking in the passing world—

all these,

like little village shards,

lie sleeping within me,

pearls waiting to be found.

— Nagendra Bharathi

My Poems/Stories/Articles in Tamil and English