Longing, the silence of God
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
लेखिलें कवित्व माझे सहज बोल । न लगे चि ओल जिव्हाळ्याची ॥1॥
नये चि उत्तर कांहीं परतोनि । जालों नारायणीं न सरतें ॥ध्रु.॥
तुका ह्मणे फळ नव्हे चि सायासा । पंढरीनिवासा काय जालें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
My poetry has been dismissed as mere words, without the moisture of genuine experience. No answer comes back to me. I have become insufficient before Narayana. Says Tuka, my efforts bear no fruit. O dweller of Pandhari, what has happened?.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
My poetry has been written off as mere words, with no moisture of real experience on the tongue. No answer comes back to me at all. I have become worthless before Narayana. Tuka says: my striving bears no fruit. O dweller of Pandhari, what has happened?
What it means
Tukaram cries out from the dryness of God's silence. He fears his own poems are only words, lacking the living moisture of genuine experience, and that he counts for nothing before Narayana. Worst of all, no answer comes back; his calling goes unmet and his effort seems to bear no fruit. The poem ends not in resolution but in a bewildered question to the dweller of Pandhari: what has happened? It is the honest lament of love that feels unanswered and refuses to pretend otherwise.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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