I saw witchcraft tonight in Vraj.
A wandering gopi came face to face with Shyam.
Sakhi, she is babbling now,
Can no longer say “milk”.
“Come get Shyam, Shyam,
A pot full of Shyam!”
In the overgrown lanes of Vrindavan
Shyam Manohar fixed His eye on this girl,
then departed.
Meera’s Lord is hot, lovely and dark;
Tonight she saw witchcraft in Vraj.
– Meerabai
Translated by Robert Bly
I came across a couple of Meera bhajans in translation online while searching for the lyrics of a specific bhajan, and they were so gorgeous I sent it to a friend, Hemu. I'm glad because I haven't been able to track the place I found it since.
Afterword - I tracked down both of these, thanks to a little prodding by Shiv; he wanted to know the original from whence the translation sprung.
Tagged: imagery, love poetry, Meerabai, Robert Bly, Shyam, translation
2 Comments
Original please! I assume it is a Bhajan. Please let me know the actual source.
I did a bit of tracking down and finally found the translation online as well as the name of the original bhajan in a book called ‘For Love of the Dark One’ by Andrew Schelling. I’d love to get my hands on a copy, since it seems like the translations are very well done. The original begins “Ya Vraj Mein Kachu Dekhyo Ri”.
Also, here’s a link to a page that has a number of references to various bhajans, essays and translations. You may find this interesting reading. http://home.infionline.net/~ddisse/mirabai.html