I've been trying to lay my hands on this poem for soooo long & am glad that I finally managed to find it! I first came across it in one of my English-texts in school & vaguely recalled it. I remembered that it was so full of such powerful metaphors & similes that even at that age it had hit me like a brick. I like it so much that I just can't help sharing...
The Bangle Sellers
- Sarojini Naidu
Bangle sellers are we who bear
Our shining loads to the temple fair...
Who will buy these delicate, bright
Rainbow-tinted circles of light?
Lustrous tokens of radiant lives,
For happy daughters and happy wives.
Some are meet for a maiden's wrist,
Silver and blue as the mountain mist,
Some are flushed like the buds that dream
On the tranquil brow of a woodland stream,
Some are aglow wth the bloom that cleaves
To the limpid glory of new born leaves
Some are like fields of sunlit corn,
Meet for a bride on her bridal morn,
Some, like the flame of her marriage fire,
Or, rich with the hue of her heart's desire,
Tinkling, luminous, tender, and clear,
Like her bridal laughter and bridal tear.
Some are purple and gold flecked grey
For she who has journeyed through life midway,
Whose hands have cherished, whose love has blest,
And cradled fair sons on her faithful breast,
And serves her household in fruitful pride,
And worships the gods at her husband's side.
The Bangle Sellers
- Sarojini Naidu
Bangle sellers are we who bear
Our shining loads to the temple fair...
Who will buy these delicate, bright
Rainbow-tinted circles of light?
Lustrous tokens of radiant lives,
For happy daughters and happy wives.
Some are meet for a maiden's wrist,
Silver and blue as the mountain mist,
Some are flushed like the buds that dream
On the tranquil brow of a woodland stream,
Some are aglow wth the bloom that cleaves
To the limpid glory of new born leaves
Some are like fields of sunlit corn,
Meet for a bride on her bridal morn,
Some, like the flame of her marriage fire,
Or, rich with the hue of her heart's desire,
Tinkling, luminous, tender, and clear,
Like her bridal laughter and bridal tear.
Some are purple and gold flecked grey
For she who has journeyed through life midway,
Whose hands have cherished, whose love has blest,
And cradled fair sons on her faithful breast,
And serves her household in fruitful pride,
And worships the gods at her husband's side.
11 comments:
This is a wonderful and beautiful poem. I loved it since school... you should have asked me - I had it with me.
Give 'If -' by Kipling a read. And let me know what you think of it...
Yes, 'If' is another class-apart. Powerful lines that can come only from someone who's seen it all... Someone who's bounced back after every fall, dusted his pants, learnt & moved on... Best is when u can relate it to a few situations when u had to hold your ground & stand by yourself. Gives u a 'Yes!' feeling :-).
If I'm not wrong, we had both 'If' & 'Lincoln's letter to his son's headmaster' in the same English-text for that year in school & I was pretty intrigued by both!
Now I know whom to approach for good poetry, when google-search fails :-).
In school I had this diary wherein I would copy all poems I liked... I kept that through college but then now, its almost impossible to get time to copy an entire poem into a notebook (tchah tchah thats my 'quality' of life).
But, duh, I just thought, maybe I can create a blog of repository of poems. Then it would be just a search online and copy-paste. Though ofcourse transcribing devnagri poems will be a pita!
But I am thinking of starting that. Maybe I can look to you to suggest me some good poems to read and include.
That's a very good idea & I shall whole-heartedly support it :-). Devanagari is no more a PITA with these classy Google transliteration tools. It's so damn easy!
http://www.google.com/transliterate/indic
And it's not just poems, but also many songs that deserve our attention. These days I'm swooning crazy over a myriad of Marathi songs (Natyageet, Koli-geet, Bhav-geet, Lok-geet, classical etc.), thanks to the marathi 'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa - Little champs'. Sad that I completely ignored these for so long. I managed to pick 7 GB worth of these from another fanatic & am devouring these one by one. Lately I'm hooked onto this one -
http://www.aathavanitli-gani.com/Song%20Html/750.htm
I managed to find its meaning to some extent. 'Mugdha's' rendition can be found at -
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=-nGp5Bi5mqo
I also own the original sung by Sharad Jambhekar from the 1882 play (Sangeet Saubhadra).
Previously, I was similarly bowled over by 'Chandane shimpeet jashi', 'Chafa Bole Na', 'Yuvati mana' & many more...
Sorry... but u just got me started :P :-)
Sounds like a great collection... what is Mugdha btw? I don't know.
If you like Yuvati mana... and other natya sangeet, I would recommend you to listen to "Mala umajlele Baal Gandharva". The songs are sung by Kumar Gandharva... really nice ones if you like Natyasangeet.
But when I would listen to that my dad you call me 'anachronistic' :-))
/dad you/dad would
Lol! Mugdha (Vaishampayan) too is an anachronistic being. A great singer of the future, she is 8 as of now & a participant in the marathi songs competition called 'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa - Little Champs' aired on Zee-Marathi channel. This show has become so popular that they say that it's the 1st time that 3 generations sit together before the TV. Names like Mugdha, Arya Ambekar, Prathamesh etc. have become household names.
U may check it out on youtube.
I sure will check out 'Mala umajlele'. Thinking of it... all this while... couldn't u have tapped me once on my shoulder & drawn my attention to this treasure that I had happily ignored & walked on? And then u get to whine about your quality of life! :P :-)
LOL
Wasnt I enough of a weirdo in school without having to tap on guys shoulders and ask them to listen to Kumar Gandharva?
:-D
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