SAINT TUKARAM'S POEMS - L'angolo della poesia Saint Tukaram

Vishnu Moreshwar Mahajani was born on 12th November,1851 in Pune.He did his MA from Deccan College, Pune in 1873. His gave lectures on Tukaram on November 15th and16th at Hemantutsav Vyakhanmala, Hindu Union Club, Mumbai. He was chairperson of the Marathi Sahitya Sammelan, Pune in 1907 .Between 1908-18 he translated 900 poems of Tukaram in English . He died on 16th February, 1923. Given below are some of his translations.

1.(Dhanya te sansari)English
All blest are they whose heart with pity grows.
Who left Vaikuntha.their home,to serve mankind;
who slight their person's needs ( it is not myth)
Whose hearts are broad ; Whose lips with honey flow .

1.(Dhanya te sansari)Italiano
Sono benedetti coloro ai quali il cuore si riempie di pietà;
che hanno lasciato Vaikuntha, la loro dimora per servire l'umanità,
che tralasciano di assecondare i loro bisogni personali (non è un mito)
Che hanno un cuore grande e le labbra di miele;

2.(Anu raniya thokda)English
Smaller than the smallest atom,
All embracing as the heavens,
Tuka views the world objective -
Name and form as all delusion -
Realising its true nature
Serpant like, he drops his cover,
Far is left the triple range,
Which the soul has just passed o'er
Light the jar of dull clay brightens!
Shining in that light doth Tuka
Live on earth to serve the mankind.

2.(Anu raniya thokda) Italiano
Più piccolo del più piccolo atomo,
abbraccia tutto come il cielo,
Tuka guarda il mondo degli oggetti,
Nome e foma sono solo delusione,
Realizzando la propria vera natura,
Come un serpente depone la sua pelle,
Tanto indietro sono rimaste le tre sfere (i tre guna e/o i tre mondi)
che l'anima ha sorpassato,
Luccica acceso l'opaco barattolo d'argilla,
Luminoso in quel punto di luce Tuka,
Vivi sulla terra per servire l'umanità!

3.(Tu maulihun ) English
Thou art more kind than mother dear,
More soothing than the rays of moon
Thy love an ever flowing tide,
Sinks deeper than a common stream
I know of none that equals Thee -
Thou best of all immortal Gods
I wave my name above Thy head,
And part it at thy holy feet.
Ah! Sweeter than sweetest things,
And migheir than all the elements,
Those rulest O'er the Universe,
And seest that it goes all right,
In silence do I lay my head
upon thy feet , and pray "Forgive"

3.(Tu maulihun ) Italiano
Tu sei più caro della mia cara madre,
più pacificante dei raggi di luna.
Il Tuo amore, una marea inarrestabile,
fa affondare più profondamente di un normale fiume.
Nulla di quello che conosco Ti eguaglia,
tu, il migliore degli Dei Immortali.
Sventolo il mio nome sulla Tua testa,
e lo accomuno ai Tuoi santi piedi.
Ah! Più dolce di tutte le cose dolci,
e più potente dei cinque elementi,
che regnano su tutto l'universo.
Vedi che tutto va per il verso giusto,
In silenzio pongo la mia testa sui Tuoi piedi e chiedo "perdono"

4.(Taruvar beejapoti) English
All men are to me God like Gods!
I see no vice no faults in them
Now happy in my life on earth
The hearts content is won great gain !
The face and its reflection true
Seems different thought they are one,
For when a stream ocean joins
It is no more distinct stream!

4.(Taruvar beejapoti) Italiano
Tutti gli uomini sono come Dio per me!
Non vedo vizi nè colpe in loro.
Adesso è felice la mia vita sulla terra.
Il cuore è pieno, grande vittoria!
Il volto e il suo reflesso davvero sembrano differenti, sebbene siano uno.
Quando un fiume si unisce all'oceano cessa di essere un fiume!

5.( Sakal hee majhi)English
None see me off. Let those go home who will
Receive this blessing from a loosing heart
Let righteous deed secure you all good weal
Ye brought me up and gave me to one
who will not give you cause for anxious thoughts
I must now walk with my dear Lord of Life
Whom have I followed with inborn love.
If your love for me I give free scope
'T will cause delay.Be calm,allay your grief
who take each other by the hand secure
full purpose of this life --- as Laws assert
we part for good;reserve for talk the past.

5.( Sakal hee majhi) Italiano
Nessuno mi accompagna (alla partenza).
Lascia tornare a casa coloro i quali riceveranno questa benedizione da un cuore che si scioglie.
Lascia che le rette azioni vi proteggano dalle buone piaghe
Mi hai fatto crescere e mi hai dato a uno che non da a causa di ansia e preoccupazione;
Adesso devo camminare con il mio amato Signore della Vita, che ho seguito con intimo amore.
Se mi ami, ti darò un libero intento, che ti porterà ritardo.
Ma stai calmo,
allevia la tua tristezza,
chi si prende per mano si assicura il vero scopo della vita --- come dice la Legge, distribuiamo il bene e lasciamo il passato alle vane parole.

IL SITO DI SAINT TUKARAM

The essence of truth - The Hindustan Times

A website devoted to Marathi poet-saint Sant Tukaram records a viewership across 134 countries as it completes six years
Yogesh Joshi

IN 1930, during the freedom struggle, when Mahatma Gandhi was incarcerated in Yerawada Jail, he took to reading the abhangs (devotional songs) of Tukaram. Fascinated by the lyricism of the poems, he undertook the task of translating 16 of them into English.

Seven decades later, a website devoted to the 17th century poetsaint has translations in French, Russian, German, Spanish and even Esperanto. And it is viewed by aficionados across 134 countries.

Suzanne Voidette in faraway Atlanta in the USA, is one of them. "So rare to stumble upon a shining jewel… essence of truth. May he shine and inspire forever," she remarked on February 9 this year.

It's an eclectic bunch of readers out there on the site. While Dirk Rottman of Hamburg says, "Nama japa brings great joy to me and eases the heavy weight of materialism that we are facing these days," Ian Schwartz puts it in typical Americanese: "Brilliant. Freaking brilliant." Search for grace Tukaram's global odyssey began in 1868 when some of the 4,500 abhangs he wrote in his lifetime were translated into English by British litterateur Sir Alexan- der Grant, who declared, "Tukaram is a national poet."

But when Dilip Dhonde, a civil engineer-turned-freelance soft- ware professional and his friend Sandeep Apte were looking for in- formation on Tukaram and his poems some years ago, they found no material on the Internet. "We were so disappointed that we decided to set up our own website," says Dhonde.

Born in 1609 at Dehu, a small town on the banks of the riv er Indrayani, near Pune, Tukaram, through his de votional dis courses blended with poetry is not only one of India's most popular saints, but his work constitutes one of the high points of Marathi literature.

The-then existing editions of Tukaram's work formed a mas sive collection of randomly scat tered poems, which Dhonde col lected and uploaded on his web site in Marathi. In addition to translations in other Indian languages, there are also poems translated by international devotees in German, Russian, French, Spanish and Dutch.

Dhonde and Apte spent many restless months reaching out to people across the world to procure translated collections of Tukaram's poems in these languages and finally launched the website in 2002, on 17 February, Tukaram's birth anniversary.

The site's viewership has grown steadily since then. As Maurizio from Ponzano Veneto in Italy puts it, "Sometimes it is difficult to spend some time in the company of saints because of family life and the job, but when there is a real longing, grace comes in unexpected ways… the site is wonderful…"

Even after the passage of four hundred years, the magic of Tukaram's poetry still has the power to transcend the boundaries of region, religion and language.

The Hindustan Times, Mumbai. 24th February, 2008.

Web site "Saint Tukaram"

Knowledge, who cares?

There is a story about a unique meeting between Saint Tukaram and Saint Ramdas.
This story is reported in the book "Master of Self Realizzation" written by Siddharameshwar Maharaji.

One day Saint Tukaram and Saint Ramdas met each other while standing on the opposite banks of a river.

With a gesture of his hand, Samartha Ramdas asked saint Tukaram "How much awakening have you brought about among the people ?" Saint Tukaram replied with a gesture forming his right hand in a fist , and putting back of it to his lips , to indicate that nowere had he found anybody who cared for awakening to the Self. then Tukaram Maharaji put the same question back to Samartha Ramdas , who then indicated thet there was no one awakening whatsoever. They continued on their way.

saint Tukaram has said "how can I descibe the obligations of the Saints? They are continuosly awakening me " Even though it is true that the two Saints are no longer with us in their bodily form they have given us all they wanted to teach in the books "Abhangagatha" and Dashbod".

The great wealth that they have handed over to us is the priceless legacy of these books. Whoever makes a claim that he is heir to their legacy will enjoy this priceless inheritance.

We are confident that the promise of a Saint can'not be taken as a joke.

We strongly believe that the real heir of a Guru is the disciple who enbody his theachings.

But we have to came back to the opening question....who cares?

How many disciples becames students?

The picture that we enclosed in this post is fine example of the divine conversation between adepts.

It's an oil painting made by A.R.M., it's fine grace is not adequately conveyed by the digital media.

L'angolo della Poesia, Sant Tukaram

Inseriremo periodicamente poesie ed inni di grandi donne e uomini del presente e del passato.
In particolare sceglieremo quelli meno noti al grande pubblico ma che hanno saputo centrare il bersaglio.
Ovvero riuscire a esprimere l'inesprimibile con parole umane.
Cominceremo con un grande santo indiano del 17° secolo, Sant Tukaram.

Parole
Le parole sono gli unici gioielli che posseggo.
Le parole sono gli unici vestiti che indosso.
Le parole sono l'unico nutrimento che sostiene la mia vita.
Le parole sono l'unica ricchezza che distribuisco tra la gente.
Dice Tukaram, sii testimone della Parola, essa è Dio.
Io Lo venero con le mie parole

Da una Traduzione dal testo "Says Tuka" in marathi, di Dilip Chitre
Per chi volesse approfondire c'è un sito in inglese o francese, molto interessante:
http://www.tukaram.com/default.asp