Krishna, the cowherds at rough play
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
एकमेकीं घेती थडका । पाडी धडका देऊनि ॥1॥
एकमेका पाठीवरि । बैसोनि करिती ढवाळी ॥ध्रु.॥
हाता हात हाणे लाही । पळतां घाई चुकविती ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे लपणी चपणी । एका हाणी पाठीवरी ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
They bump into one another, pushing and jostling each other. They ride on each other's backs, tussling and roughhousing. They slap hands, playing tag, dodging blows while running. Says Tuka, they play hide and seek, one of them slapping another on the back.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
They bump into one another, knocking each other down with the blow. They climb on each other's backs and wrestle and tussle. Hand smacks hand in a game of tag, and they dodge the blows as they run. Tuka says: they play hide and seek, one of them slapping another on the back.
What it means
Tukaram lingers on the plain rough-and-tumble of Krishna and the cowherd boys at play. They shove and bump and topple each other, ride piggyback, and wrestle in the dirt like any band of children. There is hand-slapping tag, dodging as they sprint, and hide and seek with a smack on the back when someone is caught. The poet records it without a lesson tacked on, and the wonder is exactly that: God in the thick of ordinary boyish games, fully one of the gang.
Krishna Leela
Poems celebrating Krishna's birth, childhood, and divine play.
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