Longing, pressing the pilgrims for word
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
बोलिलीं तीं काय । माझा बाप आणि माय ॥1॥
ऐसें सांगा जी झडकरी । तुह्मी सखे वारकरी ॥ध्रु.॥
पत्राचें वचन । काय दिलें फिरावून ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे कांहीं । मना आणिलें कीं नाहीं ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
What did my Father and Mother say? Tell me quickly, O my dear Varkari friends. What reply was given to my letter? Says Tuka, did they take me to mind or not?
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
What did they say, my Father and my Mother? Tell me quickly, you who are my dear Varkari friends. What reply was sent back to my letter? Tuka says: did they take me to mind, or not?
What it means
Tukaram questions the returning Varkaris like a child desperate for news of absent parents. God and the divine home are his Father and Mother, and the pilgrims are the trusted friends who carried his message there. He cannot wait, pressing them to tell him at once what answer came back to his letter. Underneath the urgency is the one fear that matters to him: was he remembered at all, or forgotten? The poem holds the whole vulnerability of waiting to learn whether the beloved kept you in mind.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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