Longing, my tongue bolder than you
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
काय मी जाणता । तुह्मांहुनि अनंता ॥1॥
जो हा करूं अतिशय । कां तुह्मां दया नये ॥ध्रु.॥
काय तुज नाहीं कृपा । विश्वाचिया मायबापा ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे वाणी । माझी वदे तुह्मांहुनि॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
What do I know more than You, O Infinite One? When I make this excess of effort, does compassion not stir in You? Do You lack mercy, O Mother and Father of the world? Says Tuka, my tongue speaks more boldly than You do.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
What do I know, more than you do, Infinite One? When I strain this hard, why does compassion not stir in you? Have you no mercy, mother and father of the world? Tuka says: my tongue speaks more boldly than you do.
What it means
Tukaram is pressing God with a lover's complaint. He admits he knows nothing that the Infinite does not already know, so his hard effort is not about teaching God anything; it is about why God stays silent. He appeals to God as the mother and father of all the world and asks how such a parent can withhold mercy. The sharp last line turns the charge inward and outward at once: his own tongue is bolder in asking than God is in answering. It is the freedom of intimacy, complaining straight to the one he trusts.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
More in this theme →