India In Love: A Collection Of Poems

Do you “set out in ecstasy”? Have you ever been “pierced by a love-wound”? Perhaps you pine for a “dark bearded young man”? From two-millenia-old Tamil Sangam verse and 18th century Punjabi lyrics to queer poetry from 2016, we bring you a crackling selection of poems about love and its varied accompaniments -- joy, longing, pain, desire, and among many other things, sex!Poem 1: By Mirabai (Marwari), 1498CE to 1546 CEतेरा कोई नहीं रोकणहार, मगन होय मीरा चली। (टेर )लाज, सरम , कुल की मरजादा, सिर से दूर करी।मान �पमान दोउ धर पटके , निकली हूँ ज्ञान गली।। १ऊंची �टरिया लाल किवड़िया , निर्गुण सेझ बिछीपचरंगी भालर सुभ सोहै , फूलन फूल कली।। २बाजूबंद कड़ू ला सोहे , माँग सिंदूर भरी।सुमीरन थाल हाथ में लीन्हां , सोभा �धिक भली ।। ३सेज सुखमरण मीरा सोवै , धन सुभ आज धरी।तुम जावो राणा घर �पने , मेरी तेरी नाहिं सरी ।। ४

Translation

(Translated By Ruth Vanita)No one can stop you - Mira set out in ecstasy.Modesty, shame, family honour - all these I put aside.Flinging away praise and blame, i took the the path of knowledge.Tall the towers, red the windows - a formless bed is spread,Auspicious the five coloured necklace, made of flowers and buds,Beautiful armlets and bracelets, vermilion in my hair partingThe tray of remembrance in my hand- a beauty more trueMira sleeps on the bed of happiness - auspicious the hour today.Rana you go to your house - you and I cannot pull together.No one can stop you- Mira sets out in ecstacy

Poem 2: Old Sangam Poetry (Tamil), 1st Century BCE- 5th Century BCE

�டி புனை தொடுகழல், மை �ணல் காளைக்கு என்தொடி கழித்திடுதல் யான் யாய் �ஞ்சுவலே;�டு தோள் முயங்கல் �வை நாணுவலே;என் போல் பெரு விதுப்புறுக என்றும்ஒரு பாற் படா�தாகி,இரு பாற் பட்ட இம் மையல் ஊரே.

Translation

(Translated by Chenthil Nathan, sourced from https://oldtamilpoetry.com/)Puranaanooru – 83I fear mother noticing that my bangles slip outas I pine for the anklet wearing, dark bearded young man;I’m shy to embrace his valorous shoulders in public;May this indecisive town which doesn’t decideeither in favour of mother or myselfbut vacillates between us two,tremble as much as I do. 

Poem 3: Heer by Waris Shah (Punjabi), 1766

sohni vich dareya de dubb moijado lagga su ishq da sool miyanwaris shah je jaan gavavni ekar ishq di marz kabool miyansir ditteyan baaj na ishq pakkeeh nahi sukhaliyan yarian veode zakham na hashgar tak hon razijinna laggiyan prem katarian veheer aakhdi ranjheya kehr hoyarahi sharm di lajj na kaa menujogan ho vibhoot main la bethibhora mehr na aundi zara tenuduniya dar na rahega koi etheashiq fakkar hi sab rehnge niapo ap maloom kar len sabhejado hashar nu mamle pen ge

Translation

(Translated By Rudraksh Cheeba, sourced from https://www.musixmatch.com/lyrics/Gurdas-Maan/Couplets-of-Heer)Pierced with a love-woundSohni threw herself in that love-river and drownedMiyan Waris Shah, if you would shrug off this thing called your lifeThen you can embrace no better ailment than loveThis love won’t ripen without heads sacrificedThese bonds they aren’t easy to keepTheir wounds stubbornly refuse to healWho’ve been pierced by the dagger of loveHeer says to Ranjha, calamity has struckLook, I’m left with no shame or guilt!I’ve become a jogan, and smeared my forehead with hermit’s ashO dawn, for you feel no pity for my woundNo denizens of the sensible world roam hereOnly lovers survive and thriveEach facing their true inner beingTo account for themselves on Doomsday!

Poem 4: Zabanon Ka Bosa By Fahmida Riaz (Urdu), b. 1945-

زبانوں کے رس �یں یہ کیسی �ہک ہے!یہ بوسہ کہ جس سے �حبت کی صہبا کی اڑتی ہے خوشبویہ بد �ست خوشبو جو گہرا غنودہ نشہ لا رہی ہےیہ کیسا نشہ ہے�رے ذہن کے ریزے ریزے �یں ایک آنکھ سی کھل گئی ہےت� اپنی زباں �یرے �نہ �یں رکھے جیسے پاتال سے �یری جاں کھینچتے ہویہ بھیگا ہوا گر� و تاریک بوسہا�اوس کی کالی برستی ہوئی رات جیسے ا�ڈتی چلی آ رہی ہےکہیں کوئی ساعت ازل سے ر�یدہ�ری روح کے دشت �یں اڑ رہی تھیوہ ساعت قریں تر چلی آ رہی ہے�جھے ایسا لگتا ہےتاریکیوں کےلرزتے ہوئے پل کو�یں پار کرتی چلی جا رہی ہوںیہ پل خت� ہونے کو ہےاور اباس کے آگےکہیں روشنی ہےzabānoñ ke ras meñ ye kaisī mahak haiye bosa ki jis se mohabbat kī sahbā kī uḌtī hai ḳhushbūye bad-mast ḳhushbū jo gahrā ġhunūda nasha lā rahī haiye kaisā nasha haimere zehn ke reze reze meñ ek aañkh sī khul ga.ī haitum apnī zabāñ mere muñh meñ rakhe jaise pātāl se merī jaañ khīñchte hoye bhīgā huā garm o tārīk bosaamāvas kī kaalī barastī huī raat jaise umaDtī chalī aa rahī haikahīñ koī saa.at azal se ramīdamirī ruuh ke dasht meñ uḌ rahī thīvo saa.at qarīñ-tar chalī aa rahī haimujhe aisā lagtā haitārīkiyoñ kelarazte hue pul komaiñ paar kartī chalī jā rahī huuñye pul ḳhatm hone ko haiaur abus ke aagekahīñ raushnī hai

Translation

(Translated by Patricia L. Sharpe, sourced from rekhta.org)Deep myrrh-scented kiss,deep with the tongue, suffusedwith the musky perfumeof the wine of love: I'm reelingwith intoxication, languidto the point of numbness,yet with a mind so rousedan eye flies openin every cell.And you! Sucking my breath,my life, from its deepest,most ancient abode.Kiss.Wet, warm, dark.Pitch black!Like a moonless night,when rain comes flooding in.A glint of runaway timefleeing in the wilderness of my soulseems to be drawing closer.I sway across a shadowy bridge.It's about to end, I think,somewhere ahead,there is light.

Poem 5: I want to 377 you so bad* By Akhil Katyal (English), 2016

till even the sheets hurt i want toache your knees singe your skinline you brown breathe you in i want tomouth you in words neck you in redi want to beg your body insane into sepalsi want to 377 you like a star falling off the browni want to feel you till my nails turn wateri want to suck you seven different skiesi want to be a squatter in your head whenit sleeps when its dark i want to break lawswith you in bed and in streets and in parks*This refers to Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, a colonial era law that criminalises homosexual acts. In 2013, the Supreme Court of India upheld the legality of this law. LGBT activists and other human rights legal practitioners have launched several challenges to this law.

(Source:  Katyal, A. (2016). I want to 377 you so bad*. Feminist Dissent, (1), 117-118. Retrieved from: http://journals.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/feministdissent/article/view/12)

 

Poem 6: A TIME FOR BIRDSONG by Sukirtharani, 2013

You and I travel togetheras if we were leading a bridegroom,carrying a vessel of picked flowers.Like a practised guide, I point outthe ashen mouth of a volcano,crevices of mountains like human thighs,deep valleys.Forest streams melt our clothesand hold us tight in their arms.Trees shed upon us the embryo scentwrapped deep within their flowers.We make love inside the watersas fallen jasmine cover usand our bodies’ sap flows away, foaming.You hold out your hands to me, pleadingto stay longer in my body’s embrace.I climb ashore, naked.Birds never forgetwhen they should sing.Our thanks to Anjali Panjabi and Rana Safvi for their help in suggesting some poems here.