Belonging, the simple folk who feast together
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आम्ही गोवळीं रानटें । नव्हों जनांतील धीटें ॥१॥
सिदोरीचा करूं काला । एक वांटितों एकाला ॥ध्रु.॥
खेळों आपआपणांशीं । आमचीं तीं आम्हांपाशीं ॥२॥
मिळालों नेणते । तुका कान्होबा भोंवते ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
We are wild cowherd folk of the forest, not bold people of the town. We share our packed lunches in a communal feast, distributing to one another. We play among ourselves; what is ours stays with us. Says Tuka, we are gathered as innocents around Kanho.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
We are wild cowherd folk of the forest. We are not the bold people of the town. We make a shared feast of our lunches. One hands a portion to another. We play among ourselves. What is ours stays with us. Tuka says: we are gathered as innocents, all around Kanho.
What it means
Tukaram speaks as one of the rough country herd-boys and sets them against the clever, self-assured townspeople. They have no polish; they are simple forest folk, and they say so without shame. Their way is the shared meal, the kala, where everyone's lunch is pooled and passed hand to hand, and their play stays among their own. The last line names what they are circled around: Kanho, Krishna himself. For Tukaram this is the company of the saints, unsophisticated and open-hearted, whose only wealth is being gathered as innocents around their Lord.
Krishna Leela
Poems celebrating Krishna's birth, childhood, and divine play.
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