Longing, the soul torn from God
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कन्या सासुर्यासि जाये । मागें परतोनी पाहे ॥१॥
तैसें जालें माझ्या जिवा । केव्हां भेटसी केशवा ॥ध्रु.॥
चुकलिया माये । बाळ हुरू हुरू पाहे ॥२॥
जीवना वेगळी मासोळी । तुका म्हणे तळमळी ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
When the daughter leaves for her husband's home, she keeps turning back to look. My soul feels just the same: when will you meet me again, Keshava? Like a child separated from its mother, who looks around in every direction with anxious eyes. Says Tuka, like a fish taken out of water, I writhe in longing.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
A daughter goes off to her husband's home, and keeps turning back to look. My soul has become just like that: when will you meet me again, Keshava? Like a child who has lost its mother, looking this way and that with frightened eyes. Tuka says: like a fish lifted out of the water, I writhe and burn.
What it means
Tukaram pours the pain of separation from God into three plain images. The bride leaving her childhood home keeps glancing back, unable to let go; the lost child searches every direction in fear; the fish out of water thrashes and cannot breathe. Each picture sharpens the same ache, his soul cut off from Keshava and unable to rest until they meet again. The cry, when will you meet me, is the heart of the verse. It is the language of viraha, the longing of one who knows where life is and cannot reach it.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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