Longing, spent strength and lingering ache
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
किती करूं शोक । पुढें वाढे दुःखें दुःख ॥1॥
आतां जाणसी तें करीं । माझें कोण मनीं धरी ॥ध्रु.॥
पुण्य होतें गांठी । तरि कां लागती हे आटी ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे बळ । माझी राहिली तळमळ ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
How much more shall I lament? Sorrow only breeds more sorrow. Now do as You see fit; who else will hold my cause in mind? If there were merit stored in my account, why would such hardship come? Says Tuka, my strength is spent, but the anguish lingers.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
How much more should I grieve? Sorrow only breeds more sorrow ahead. Now do what You think right; who else holds my cause in mind? If I had merit stored up, why would such hardship fall on me? Tuka says: my strength is gone, but the anguish stays.
What it means
Tukaram has reached the end of complaint and sees that grieving only feeds itself, each sorrow giving birth to the next. So he hands the matter over: let God do as God sees fit, since no one else even keeps his case in their thoughts. He reads his suffering as evidence of an empty account, no merit laid by, for otherwise the hardship would not have come. The last line names the cruel state he is left in: his force is used up, yet the burning unrest refuses to leave, so even surrender brings no rest.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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