Kanna,
till you left for Mathura
I was a mother.
Only a mother!
I fed you and sang you to sleep.
I played and quarreled with you.
I filled the earthen pots
hung from the roof,
with fresh butter and curds
for you to steal.
Watching you grow, with
untiring eyes,
then my heart
was brimming
with this mother!
Later after you
left for Mathura
to win wars one after another,
to conquer, to become a hero
I was left alone
in the darkened gloom of Vrindavanam.
Into the cold pool of silence
I sank.
Then one day
on your memory-drenched banks of Kalindi
I met Radha.
With her, I dove
and swam.
Discarding the old
I was born anew
as poet, as lover!
‘Yashoda’,
which means mother,
has disappeared somewhere.
I have forgotten the lullabies.
Now I know only to sing
songs of love and romance.
Krishna,
If you return
in the future
I have nothing
to offer you.
Nothing.
Notes:
1) ‘Yashoda’ – Lord Krishna’s foster mother , the epitome of motherhood.
2) ‘Kanna’ – The pet name of Lord Krishna.
3) ‘Radha ‘ – The eternal lover of Lord Krishna.
4) ‘Kalindi’ – A tributary of river Yamuna on the banks of which Lord Krishna spent his childhood. Kalindi has often been personified as a young girl madly in love with Krishna.
Note: This poem is based on Yashoda, Krishna’s foster-mother who is considered to be the epitome of motherhood. It conveys her thoughts to her son Krishna who has left her to go to Mathura. Yashoda speaks of the loneliness that envelops Vrindavanam, his home, after his departure. Radha, his lover, shows her the way through love to be reborn as a woman.
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