Autobiography, the stammering child
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आरुश माझी वाणी बोबडीं उत्तरें । केली ते लेकुरें सलगी पायीं ॥1॥
करावें कवतुक संतीं मायबापीं । जीवन देउनि रोपीं विस्तारिजे ॥ध्रु.॥
आधारें वदली प्रसादाची वाणी । उिच्छष्टसेवणी तुमचिया ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे हे चि करितों विनंती । मागोनि पुढती सेवादान ॥3॥ ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
My speech is rough, my words stammering; like a child, I have taken liberties at Your feet. O saints, O mother and father, nurture this as one would a tender plant, giving it water to grow. It is by Your grace that this tongue has spoken, feeding on the remnants of Your own words. Says Tuka, this alone is my prayer: grant me the gift of service again and again.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
My speech is rough, my words come out stammering. Like a child I have taken liberties at Your feet. O saints, my mother and father, take delight in it. Pour water on this seedling and let it spread. It was on Your support that this tongue spoke at all. I was only feeding on the leavings of Your own words. Tuka says: this is the one thing I ask: give me again, and again, the gift of service.
What it means
Tukaram is being deliberately small before the saints, calling his own poetry rough and stammering. He casts himself as a child taking liberties at their feet and asks them, as his mother and father, to be pleased with it and to nurture it like a tender plant. He gives them the credit for the speech itself: whatever he sang came from leaning on them and feeding on the scraps of their own words. His one request is not fame or release but more chances to serve. The poem turns humility into a prayer for continued devotion.
Autobiography
Tukaram's own account of his life, struggles, awakening, and mission.
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