Saturday, January 14, 2017

ॐ नमः शिवाय ॐ THE POEMS OF LALLA OF KASHMIR JK/NKK 88

JK/NKK 88
pôt zu:ni vvathith môt bolànovum,
dag lalànö:vàm dayi-sànzi prahe
làli làli kara:n la:la vuzanovum,
mi:lith tas man Srotsyom dahe.

I rose at the end of moonlight,
calling to my mad mind,
soothing its pain
with the love of God.
Crying "it's me,
Lali, Lali,"
I woke the Beloved.
My mind was purified
in the smoke
of our union.

Note: This poem has several textual problems. Sir George Grierson read the last line as "My mind was purified of the ten." That is possible. "The ten" would be five organs of sense plus five of action. Other translators have read "my mind and body were purified," But there are linguistic reasons to reject such a reading. Lalla's old Kashmiri often used the Sanskrit word "deha" for body, generally writing it as "dih" or "deh." I have never seen it written as "dah," which in fact means "smoke," and "dahe" would be the ablative case. So I have chosen to stick my neck out here and offer a really original interpretation. The literal translation of the last line of the quatrain would then be, "Having met (or joined with) him, my mind was purified in the smoke."

ॐ नमः शिवाय ॐ



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