Reunion, the lap at last
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
बैसलों तों कडियेवरी । नव्हें दुरी वेगळा ॥1॥
घडलें हें बहुवा दिसां । आतां इच्छा पुरवीन ॥ध्रु.॥
बहु होता जाला सीण । नाहीं क्षण विसांवा ॥2॥
दुःखी केलें मीतूंपणें । जवळी नेणें होतें तें ॥3॥
पाहात जे होतों वास । ते चि आस पुरविली॥4॥
तुका ह्मणे मायबापा । झणी कोपा विठ्ठला ॥5॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I have been seated right on Your lap; I am not far away or separate from You. This has come to pass after many, many days; now I shall fulfill my chitta's longing. There was so much weariness and suffering, not a moment of rest. The separation of I and You caused such pain; I did not know You were so near. The hope I had been nurturing has at last been fulfilled. Says Tuka, O mother and father, O Vitthal, please do not be angry.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I am seated right on your lap. I am not far off. I am not separate. This took many, many days to happen. Now I will fulfill my heart's longing. There was so much weariness, so much pain, not one moment of rest. The split of I and You hurt me. I did not know you were this close. The hope I had been holding has come true. Tuka says: O mother, O father, O Vitthal, please do not be angry with me.
What it means
Tukaram describes the end of a long separation as a child climbing into a parent's lap, no distance left, no division left. He does not hide how hard the waiting was: years of weariness and pain with no rest, all of it caused by the sense of an I set apart from a You. The discovery that undoes the pain is simple and devastating: God was this near the whole time, and he did not know it. Reunited, his last word is not triumph but a child's anxious tenderness, asking the mother and father he calls Vitthal not to be angry, as though the closeness is too precious to risk.
Ecstasy and Joy
Triumphant happiness: poems written from the far side of the struggle.
More in this theme →