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Bodhi Tree (pimpalvrksa)

January 2nd, 2012 by admin

Here is a settlement.

Houses with red-tiled roofs,

planned roads,

gardens and lawns.

 

It is a laboratory to mold people…

Minds are being forged

        in what sort of furnace?

Smiles on faces and poison in hearts,

no harmony between thought and action.

The same old customary drill is on.

 

Those calculating faces,

somewhat sophisticated,

are going to change their masks and come out

singing the arati of my welcome.

 

I am satisfied that

I have sown the seeds

But here they have already started the preparations

     for the resistance…

I am doubtful:

Will at least one seed sprout?

Bodhi tree…………..

 

Mina Gajbhiye's Marathi poem 'pimpalvrksa' translated by Shubhangi Apte and Slyvie Martinez with some changes by Eleanor Zelliot

About this poem, Eleanor Zelliot writes "seems to indicate the touching faith that the seed of Buddhism might possibly overcome the traditionalism and hypocrisy of Hinduism." 

Source: Images of women in Maharastrian Literature and Religion. Edited by Anne Feldhaus.

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