KANHOPATRA Read Single →
Your golden voice was a curse
beauty for you was fatal
then your insistence to submit only to one
who surpassed your beauty
and you fell in love with the dark one
Chandrabhaga was witness
you returned the gifts that came from Bidar
then the Badshah sent in his soldiers
you asked for one last meeting with your lord
who stands on a brick
as Chandrabhaga is witness
no, my lord, no, don’t put me to this test
life seeks to flow away from me
the tiger has the deer’s child in his teeth
so is my state
even in the three worlds there is no place for me
save at your feet
hurry, mother Vithabai, hurry
I lose hope, I grieve
shelter Kanhopatra within your heart*
there at his feet
as Chandrabhaga is witness
you became a tree
another temple by the Ujh river
in the high mountains
another fawn
the eight year old daughter of a nomad
in the fiendish jaws of predators
a child who had gone searching
for her pony that hadn’t come home
as river Ujh is witness
as Chandrabhaga is witness
rivers flow
dark rivers flow deep
they witness
as do we.
