Longing, watching the road for word from home
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
माहेरिंचा काय येईल निरोप । ह्मणऊनि झोंप नाहीं डोळां ॥1॥
वाट पाहें आस धरूनियां जीवीं । निडळा हे ठेवीं वरी बाहे ॥ध्रु.॥
बोटवरी माप लेखितों दिवस । होतों कासावीस धीर नाहीं ॥2॥
काय नेणों संतां पडेल विसर । कीं नव्हे सादर मायबाप॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे तेथें होईल दाटणी । कोण माझें आणी मना तेथें ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
What news will come from my true home? With this thought, sleep does not visit my eyes. I watch the road with hope held within me, hand on my brow, gazing into the distance. I count the days on my fingers, restless and without patience. Perhaps the saints have forgotten, or perhaps the Lord is not inclined. Says Tuka, there must be a great crowd around Him; who will bring me to His mind?.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
What news will come from my true home? With that thought, sleep does not touch my eyes. I watch the road, holding hope in my heart, my hand shading my brow as I look into the distance. I count the days on my fingers; I am restless, I have no patience. Maybe the saints have forgotten me, or maybe the Lord is not turned toward me. Tuka says: there must be such a crowd around Him; who there will bring me to His mind?
What it means
Tukaram waits like someone longing for word from a beloved homeland, and the longing keeps sleep away. He stands at the road with his hand raised to his brow, scanning the distance for any messenger, counting off the days he has waited. He lets himself voice the two fears of the waiting: that the saints who were to carry his case have forgotten him, or that the Lord himself is simply not inclined toward him. The final worry is the most human: God is thronged by so many, so who in that crowd will speak his name and turn the Lord's attention back to him?
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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