Lover's complaint, why the delay
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कां हो एथें काळ आला आह्मां आड । तुह्मांपाशीं नाड करावया ॥1॥
कां हो विचाराचें पडिलें सांकडें । काय ऐसें कोडें उपजलें ॥ध्रु.॥
कां हो उपजेना द्यावी ऐशी भेटी । काय द्वैत पोटीं धरिलें देवा ॥2॥
पाप फार किंवा जालासी दुर्बळ । मागिल तें बळ नाहीं आतां ॥3॥
काय जालें देणें निघालें दिवाळें । कीं बांधलासि बळें ॠणेंपायीं ॥4॥
तुका ह्मणे कां रे ऐसी केली गोवी । तुझी माझी ठेवी निवडुनियां ॥5॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Has Death come between us, to work mischief against us? Has some difficulty of understanding arisen? What strange riddle is this? Why do You not arrange for us to meet? Have You harbored duality within You, O God? Is my transgression too great, or have You grown weak? Have You lost the power You once had? Has Your treasury gone bankrupt? Are You bound in chains by some debt? Says Tuka, why have You made such a tangle? Separate clearly what is Yours and what is mine.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Why has death come and stood between us, to do us harm? Why has some trouble of thought fallen on you? What strange riddle is this? Why will you not arrange for us to meet? Have you taken some duality into your heart, O God? Is my sin too great, or have you grown weak? Have you lost the strength you used to have? Has your treasury gone bankrupt? Are you tied down, bound by some debt? Tuka says: why have you made such a tangle? Sort out clearly what is yours and what is mine.
What it means
Tukaram, kept from the meeting he longs for, presses God with a chain of half-teasing questions, the way a lover badgers the beloved who stays away. He runs through every possible cause for the delay: has death blocked the road, has God grown troubled, has he started seeing them as two and not one, is his own sin the obstacle, or has God somehow weakened, gone broke, fallen into debt. None of these is offered as a real charge; together they expose how absurd any excuse for the distance is. The closing demand is for clarity: untangle this knot and settle, once and for all, what belongs to you and what to me.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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