Longing, will the Lord send word
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
होइल माझी संतीं भाकिली करुणा । जे त्या नारायणा मनीं बैसे ॥1॥
शृंगारूनि माझीं बोबडीं उत्तरें । होतील विस्तारें सांगितलीं ॥ध्रु.॥
क्षेम आहे ऐसें होइल सांगितलें । पाहिजे धाडिलें शीघ्र मूळ ॥2॥
अवस्था जे माझी ठावी आहे संतां । होइल कृपावंता निरोपिली ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे सवें येईल मुहाळी । किंवा कांहीं उरी राखतील ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The saints will have pleaded my case with compassion, so that it settles in the mind of Narayana. They will have adorned and elaborated my stammering words. Perhaps they will say: he is well; send word to him quickly. The saints know my condition; they will have reported it to the merciful Lord. Says Tuka, perhaps they will bring a full account, or perhaps they will hold something back.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The saints will have pleaded my case with compassion, so that it settles in the mind of Narayana. They will have dressed up my stammering words and told them out in full. Perhaps they will say: he is well; send for him quickly. The saints know my condition; they will have laid it before the merciful Lord. Tuka says: perhaps they will bring back a full account with them, or perhaps they will hold something back.
What it means
Tukaram imagines the saints as advocates who carry his cause to Narayana, and he hangs his hope on what they will bring back. His own words are stammering and clumsy; the saints adorn them and present them whole, so that his plea reaches the Lord's mind. The thing he aches to hear is the call home: send for him quickly. But he does not pretend to know the answer, and he ends on the open question of whether they will return with a full account or keep some of it from him. The longing is real, and so is the uncertainty he refuses to paper over.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
More in this theme →