My Fellow-Traveller
Late
JANAMANCHI VENKATRAMIAH
[The
original poem was written on 21-10-1921 recording the poet’s life experience of
1907–long long before there was any thinking in the country of Harjan uplift or removal of untouchability.]
The
sun was sinking in the West;
the evening clouds floated like
sand-dunes after a flood,
in colourful
saffron hues,
For
the traveller, soft were the sands
of
the ripe corn waved its head in joy
at the touch of the eastern breeze.
Earth
and heaven thus mingled in unison,
as I walked alone
to reach my destination not far off.
I
heard the footsteps of a strange woman
behind me, her tender feet
sinking
in the sands, her natural slow pace
made slower by the weight of the bundle on her
head.
I
queried her in kindly words,
“What
is that heavy bundle on your head,
O
maid? where do you come from
and to where do you go?”
And
replied my way-side companion;
“From
my parents’ village I come,
on way to my husband’s house
in younder
village, sir,…..and you?”
“I
go the same way, maid, step faster;
O
your bundle retards your steps,
but the village should be reached
before dark.” I said.
“This bundle. sir,
may retard my journey,
but without it I cannot subsist for a day,”
said the maid, and continued.
“My
elder brother, simple soul, presented me
with a new saree
with Kumkum; and,
in spite of my protests, made a bundle
of yellow corn, and put it on my head,
“Anyhow,
as my house nears, this bundle
grows lighter; I will follow your footsteps
fast, sir, you can proceed with speed.”
The
words of that maid, pure-souled,
more innocent than a child,
touched my ears tenderly
and pleased my heart.
When
we reached the crossing of the river
before reaching the village
the boatman said as he saw us,
“Before
the Brahmin gentleman crosses
to the other bank, the untouchable woman
should not enter the boat.”
“O
boatswain, sir, I have to reach home
before it is dark and I am a
helpless woman;
I
beg you, pity me and take me first
to the other bank.”
The
piteous outcry of that lowly woman
touched the depths of my
heart,
and I said to the boatman:
“No
harm should befall any one
because of me,”–and then I
spoke:
“I,
she and you drink the same sacred waters
of Mother Goutami;
Its
very sight makes us pure, and
a dip in it gives us salvation.
“One
born in the untouchable’s shed,
is that one untouchable to God?
Even
an animal, is it unfit
for His love? Does not He embrace all like
the air?
“While
by the grace of one and the same God
we all have to get into the same ship
and cross the same ocean,
and reach the same shore,
why all these doubts now for us?
“Therefore
hesitate not, O boatman,
let this woman get into the boat with me;
no harm thereby to anyone and no loss to
me.”
Neither
am I a follower of Dharma
like Dharmaja,
nor is this woman untouchable
as the dog that followed him;
and yet, the boat into which
both
of us entered that evening
was
verily that first step to Heaven
which
they entered!
–Translated
from the original in Telugu by M. Visweswar Rao