WIND - SUBRAMANIA BHARATI (Poet)
Before you read
The Poet of this poem is SUBRAMANIA BHARATI.
Poem translated from Tamil by A.K. Ramanujan.
Poet
Subramania Bharati (1882 –1921) is a great Tamil poet, famous for his patriotism in the pre-Independence era.
A.K. Ramanujan is a Kannada and English poet, well known for his translation of classical and modern poetry.
Poem
Wind, come softly.
Don’t break the shutters of the windows.
Don’t scatter the papers.
Don’t throw down the books on the shelf.
There, look what you did — you threw them all down.
You tore the pages of the books.
You brought rain again.
You’re very clever at poking fun at weaklings.
Frail crumbling houses, crumbling doors, crumbling rafters,
crumbling wood, crumbling bodies, crumbling lives,
crumbling hearts —
the wind god winnows and crushes them all.
He won’t do what you tell him.
So, come, let’s build strong homes,
Let’s joint the doors firmly.
Practise to firm the body.
Make the heart steadfast.
Do this, and the wind will be friends with us.
The wind blows out weak fires.
He makes strong fires roar and flourish.
His friendship is good.
We praise him every day.
Source: This topic is taken from NCERT TEXTBOOK