Longing, hoarse from calling
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आळवितां कंठ शोकला भीतर । आयुष्य वेचे धीर नाहीं मना ॥1॥
अझून कां नये हें तुझ्या अंतरा । दिनाच्या माहेरा पांडुरंगा ॥ध्रु.॥
धन दिसे डोळा दगडाचे परी । भोग ते शरीरीं विष जालें ॥2॥
चुकलों काय तें मज क्षमा करीं । आिंळगूनि हरी प्रेम द्यावें ॥3॥
अवस्था राहिली रूपाची अंतरीं । बाहेर भीतरी सर्व काळ ॥4॥
तुका ह्मणे माजे सकळ उपाय । पांडुरंगा पाय तुझे आतां ॥5॥
॥ शिवाजी राजे यांनीं स्वामींस अबदागिरी, घोडा,
कारकून असे न्यावयास पाठविले ते अभंग ॥ 14 ॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
My throat is hoarse from calling out, my throat choked with grief. My life wastes away and my mind finds no peace. Why does this not yet move You, O Panduranga, refuge of the helpless? Wealth looks like stone to my eyes; bodily pleasures have turned to poison. If I have erred, forgive me; embrace me, O Hari, and give me love. The vision of Your form dwells within me, day and night, inside and out. Says Tuka, my only recourse now is Your feet, O Panduranga.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I have called and called until my throat is raw and grief sits deep inside. My life drains away, and my mind cannot hold still. Why does this still not reach your heart, Panduranga, home of the helpless? Wealth looks to my eyes like a heap of stone; the pleasures of the body have turned to poison in my flesh. If I have done wrong, forgive me; hold me close, Hari, and give me your love. The thought of your form stays inside me, outside and within, all the time. Tuka says: every other means is finished for me. Now only your feet remain, Panduranga.
What it means
Tukaram has worn his voice out calling on God and his patience with it; the abhanga is what is left when calling has not yet been answered. He tells Panduranga plainly that wealth has gone dead in his sight and bodily pleasure has soured into poison, so there is nowhere else for his hunger to go. He does not claim he is owed an answer; he asks first for forgiveness, then for the embrace. The whole weight of the poem lands in the last line: he has run out of every other method, and his only remaining recourse is the feet of God.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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