My Memory of YOU

 Its been almost 3 years since my sister and I lost our mother. But her memories just come and grip us every now and then and coincidentally, at the same time! I think, its this time of the year that the mind floods with her memories and they keep reminding us of her last days in March 2021.

Since I wrote this poem originally in my mother tongue, Marathi, I've also translated it into English, myself because automated translations never seem to do justice to the original works.

तुझी आठवण

वार्‍याच्या एका हलक्या लाटेबरोबर, 

मनाच्या काठावर अचानक येऊन बसते…

तुझी आठवण. 

तू असतीस तर हे म्हणाली असतीस, 

तू असतीस तर हे केलं असतं, 

याची आठवण करून देते…

तुझी आठवण. 

ओळखीच्या रस्त्यांवरून चालताना, 

एका अनोळखी वळणावर डोकावते...

संध्याकाळची रात्र होताना

काळोखाच्या चादरीवर चांदण्या वेचत राहते. 

तू लिहिलेल्या पुस्तकात तुला शोधायला निघते…

पण भेटते स्वतःलाच तुझ्या गोष्टींमध्ये!

तू असतीस तर तुलाही माझ्या कवितेत 

तुझा उल्लेख सापडला असता!

आणि अशीच पुन्हा एकदा कागदाच्या सुगंधात 

अचानक एका ओळीवर थांबून

हळूच हाक मारते…

तुझी आठवण!

- नताशा बेडेकर

My memory of YOU

Drifting with a wave of the breeze,

she sits unknowingly

on the edge of the mind —

my memory of YOU.

She reminds me

of what you would have said…

what we could have done together, 

if only you were here…

Walking down familiar roads,

she peeps from behind an unfamiliar bend.

As the evening turns older and wiser,

she plucks stars from

the night’s dark blanket.

I set out to find you,

through your book,

but end up finding myself

in the stories you've written.

How I wish you could have found yourself

in the lines of my poems…

if only you were here…

And then once again,

in the fragrance of timeworn diary pages,

suddenly she pauses upon a sentence,

and calls out to me…

my memory of YOU.

:: Rajgad, Pune (2017) ::