(A translation from Bharati’s poem, in TAMIL, by K.
S. Pathy)
The glow of sun is spread against the sky;
Mountains too are overcast with light;
Over sea and land, over trees and woods
And banks of numerous streams
The radiant sunlight beams.
How strange the gloom that fills
The heart of man alone!
Light’s boundless tide swells and flows in waves;
Light’s vast sea, Light’s whirling gale,
Light’s unblemished infinity, Light’s plenteousness
Surrounds this world.
How strange the curse–a solitary heart
Should droop and grieve in stupid darkness,
Anything other than Light!
The Light that feeds the nectared blossoms sweet;
The Light that birds in congregation greet;
The Light that holds in full and fond embrace
All sea and air and land’s extensive space,
And laughs in self intoxicating mirth,
Doth flood the entire surface of the earth.
How strange it is, a lonely little heart
Amid a vile infernal gloom should smart.
The waters of the lake glisten with tremulous
light;
The lofty hill assumes a gaysome beauteous sight,
All sombre clouds, as dark as plaited hair,
Do blaze like gold and pace across the air.
How strange, this touch of lassitude that creeps
upon my heart,
In spite of profound scholarship in all the
Sastraic lore
And quest for ultimate essence of flaming Reality,
Which is the core of perfect joy that suffers no
surfeit.