Ecstasy, bliss beyond telling
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आनंदाचे डोहीं आनंदतरंग । आनंद चि अंग आनंदाचें॥1॥
काय सांगों जालें कांहऴिचयाबाही । पुढें चाली नाहीं आवडीनें ॥ध्रु.॥
गर्भाचे आवडी मातेचा डोहळा । तेथींचा जिव्हाळा तेथें बिंबे ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे तैसा ओतलासे ठसा । अनुभव सरिसा मुखा आला ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
In the pool of bliss arise waves of bliss; the very body of bliss is made of bliss. What can I say has happened beyond all telling? My love will not let me move forward. Just as a mother's craving during pregnancy reflects the child within, so the inner feeling imprints itself. Says Tuka, the impression has been poured in; the experience has risen to my very lips.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
In the deep pool of bliss, waves of bliss rise. The very body of bliss is made of bliss. What can I say has happened? It is beyond all telling. My love will not let me go a step further. As a mother's craving in pregnancy reflects the child within her, so the inner feeling shows itself there. Tuka says: in that same way the impression has been poured in me; the experience has risen all the way to my lips.
What it means
Tukaram is trying to describe an inward state of joy that overruns description, where everything, the water, the waves, even the body, is nothing but bliss. He admits language fails him: his love stops him, and he cannot move past it to explain. To say something of it he reaches for an image, the way a pregnant mother's longings mirror the child she carries, the inner reality pressing out into the outer. So with him, he says, the experience has been poured into him so completely that it has risen to his very lips and become his speech.
Ecstasy and Joy
Triumphant happiness: poems written from the far side of the struggle.
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