The wife's despair, the householder turned saint
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
काय नेणों होता दावेदार मेला । वैर तो साधिला होउनि गोहो ॥१॥
किती सर्वकाळ सोसावें हें दुःख । किती लोकां मुख वासूं तरीं ॥ध्रु.॥
झवे आपुली आई काय माझें केलें । धड या विठ्ठलें संसाराचें ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे येती बाईले असडे । फुंदोनियां रडे हांसे कांहीं ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Who knows what creditor died and took his revenge by raising this uproar in my life. How long must I endure this suffering every day? How long must I show my face to the world? Curse his own mother; what good has this Vitthala done for our household? Says Tuka, the wife lets out these outbursts, sobbing one moment and laughing bitterly the next.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Who knows what creditor died and took his revenge by being born as my husband and raising this storm in my life. How long must I bear this suffering, day after day? How long must I show my face to the world? Curse his mother; what good has this Vitthala ever done for our home? Tuka says: the wife lets out these outbursts, sobbing one moment and laughing bitterly the next.
What it means
Again Tukaram puts the lament in his wife's mouth, raw and unfiltered. She suspects her husband is some old enemy reborn to torment her, she is ashamed before her neighbors, and in her bitterness she even curses the very Vitthala her husband has given everything to. Her words swing between weeping and a brittle laugh. Tukaram does not soften her; he lets the household's anguish stand. The honesty is the point: a life given to God can look, from inside the home, like ruin, and the poem holds both truths at once without pretending the cost away.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
More in this theme →