A Tribute To Truth

I have started to really appreciate beautiful poetry and even started writing some of my own! :-) I have always enjoyed the beautiful and meaningful lyrics of many of the Tamil and Hindi songs that I routinely listen to on my phone. I had forgotten that I used to really enjoy the poetry that I studied way back in my school days, particularly in English and Hindi. Personally, I have a special fondness for the poems of the Romantic Era poets of England as well as north India's own saint-poet Kabir and his "dohey" (couplets of wisdom). Outside of the school curriculum, I have studied the Bhagavad Geeta in Sanskrit on my own, and have derived inspiration from its profound wisdom. The Bhagavad Geeta, of course, is a masterpiece of Hindu spiritual literature that even great scientists such as Albert Einstein and Robert Oppenheimer have praised eloquently. And in my own native language, Tamil, I have studied the Thirukkural - more couplets of wisdom by another saint-poet, Thiruvalluvar, from south India. Between them, I think the Thirukkural, Bhagavad Geeta, and Kabir ke dohey cover most of India's profound, and yet stunningly simple, philosophical and spiritual "wisdom of the ages".

So, it is perhaps not surprising that the first topic that came to my mind when I thought of writing poetry was one of the most eulogized ideas in Indian literature, and the idea that matters the most in science as well - Truth. In fact, India's national motto is "Satyameva jayate" in Sanskrit from the Mundakopanishad, which translates to "Truth alone triumphs". Hence, my first batch of poems is a quadrilingual series of couplets on truth - in English, Tamil, Hindi, and Sanskrit - the 4 languages that I speak and love (in decreasing order of my proficiency :D). To pay tributes to the great poets/poems that I admire, I adopt the style and meter of the above greats, but infuse them with my own substance and content. Enjoy! :-)

English:

Dogma, dogma everywhere,
And all the minds did shrink;
Dogma, dogma everywhere;
Nor any moment to think.
- My tribute to Samuel Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

Hindi:

Sat sampatti donon khade,
Kake laagu paai?
Sat bin sampatti kyaa kare,
Sat omkaar bataai|

Interpretation in English:
Truth and money stand before me,
Who gets a bow of mine?
Of what use sans truth is money,
For truth alone is divine.
- My tribute to Kabir's Dohey.

Tamil:

Poipporul eththanai murai ketpinum,
Apporul meiporul aaguvadhedhu?

Interpretation in English:
No matter how often a lie is heard,
How can it ever become the truth?
- My tribute to Thiruvalluvar's Thirukkural.

Sanskrit:

Satyam pashyatu karmaani, Bhayam tyaktvaa manushyaaha|
Sarvalokaanaam yuge yuge, Satyameva sadaa jayate||

Interpretation in English:
Seek the truth in your work, Without any fear whatsoever, O humans.
For across the world through the ages, Truth alone always triumphs.
- My tribute to Sri Krishna's Bhagavad Geeta.

Of course, wherever there is language, there is likely to be poetry. But interestingly, among the various forms of artistic and creative expression, poetry has always had an exalted status in the Indian religions and culture. Most of the important pieces of Hindu literature -- the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Puranas, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Tripitakas, the Mahayana Sutras, and the Guru Granth Sahib -- are all composed as poetry (I consider songs too as poetry). In contrast, Abrahamic literature, particularly Judaic and Christian, mostly favor prose, although Islamic literature in Arabic and Farsi seem to use an interesting mix of both prose and poetry, often in the same text! India, of course, also has a rich tradition of Islamic poetry, particularly in Urdu, which is another beautiful language that I hope to pick up some day so that I too can write couplets in that language! Of course, till then I will keep enjoying the poetry and songs that Indian movies serve us! :D

Note: I have moved all my poetry from my previous blog to this new blog.