THE ACHING
SOUL
SAI SHRIMANARAYANA
[The following poem
was written by Sai Srimannarayana who breathed his last when he was hardly
sixteen years old, leaving behind him a previous store of splendid poems like
Chatherton, Toru Dutt and Padmavathy, young inheritors of unfulfilled renown.
His sweetest verses are characterised by the saddest thought and profound
wisdom. Perhaps, he was a reincarnated sage who visited this planet for a short
while with an agonised soul seeking liberation.
As Mahabharata says,
it is better to blaze forth for a movement than to smoulder eternally! -
Editor]
All is apparently
tranquil
But the soul aches
Logic abandoned
Blind, uncontrollable
sadness
Grief floods the mind
But the tears don’t
come
The struggle of the soul
In stifling agony
Amidst surface
tranquility
Deep down the soul
aches
Like a bird in a cage
In ignorant rage.
“What greater delight
is there than to behold the earth appareled with plants as with a robe of
embroidered work, set with Orient Pearls and garnished with great diversity of
rare and costly jewels.”
–JOHN GERARD.