(Page 1)
(Ma, ma, ma…)
Mother of the native land, the
loving birth mother 1
And the Telugu mother who’s given vistas of vocabulary
To tell the three mothers’
glory: 2
No, there is no heaven
That can equal the rapturous native soil, on any scale 3
No, there is no magic that can substitute
The motherland; even if you peer into the
Whole creation with searchlights
You cannot discover a replica of the motherland 5
Just a touch would awaken the sweet feelings
Peel away the layers one by one – 7
You’ll find a childhood filled with
Clumsy stumbling faltering baby-steps
Steps interspersed with rapid running strides
Filled with innocent toothless smiles; 9
Clasping clumps of dirt, tasting ‘em like
Fistful of peanuts, hiding behind the walls
Jumping excitedly into the dirt
Rolling down ‘n playing in the dirt
Exhausted, dozing against the wall
No, they won’t come again
Those nostalgic honied memories 14
True, there is a unique flavor associated with
The birthplace, the native land
But this sentiment is realized only in your
Heart of hearts;
In your mind they’re bonds of longing.
Keep reminiscing your native place
Till the last breath 16
That itself is a great privilege!
That itself is a great privilege!
Keeping the memory intact in your mind
Is worth a million
(Page 2)
Realized, you are
By taking birth in the sacred land
A land
Where countless wish to be born 18
Reciprocating good with good
Living with exalted feelings
Responding with good deeds in return for even the bad ones 20
Forget, remembering the village
Idly for naught
Help generously without arrogance
A chance to kiss
That (native) soil is enuf! 22
Memories, how sweet of the
Defaulted debts, the unkept promises
Isn’t it a wonder of wonders?
Is it possible to have multiple lives
In a single life? 24
For a mother, every birth presents
A rebirth
Creation – at times it may appear as a
Meaningless act; mother is the beginning
And ending of all this. 26
The mother, who is just a toy in the
Creator’s hands
Can create, recreate – she is
The embodiment of that unique power
None can equal your mother
Only she has the formula
To transform blood into milk 30
She feels fulfillment while feeding
The baby, never refusing
She,
The embodiment of motherly love
She, the affectionate cause of your birth 32
Always meditates on you,
Her attention and breath
Always dwells on the child’s welfare
Patience’s other name is perseverance
And the surname is generosity 34
The real name is attachment,
And her pet name, affection
Ably
She bestows steadfast, tireless courage
And self-confidence 36
(Page 3)
Always protective love revolves around
Mother’s eye corners’ (gaze)
‘Cuz like mother Earth
Her prime concern is children’s welfare 38
No, there is no meaning
To the children’s clichéd haughty utterances: “Yea, I’ve
given
Given,”
Where will you find meaning to such words? 40
In which dictionary? Just a futile search
The mother, who got accustomed to
Seeing only love in (all) your actions lifelong,
Like detecting only sugar in the rotten watermelon
Can any god give expression to
Such sweet feelings? 45
At birth, you
Are merely a being with a mute voice;
The Mother of tongues (Saraswati)
Mixed Telugu with pap – it’s due to Her
Compassionate gesture
Today these spoken words morph into mounds 48
Mounds of honey, they transform into jovial
Swing on the branches of Telugu word-treasure
They make your poetry sing like the
Koel’s soft cooing 50
Bringing the beauty of prose, lyrical poetry
And dance rhythms
Melodious tune filled ballets
Holding fine-tuned Veena
Generating visual tambura
stories 52
A veritable fountain of visual and audio
Dramas
Becoming a graceful lady of language 54
(Page 4)
The vina-tambura
holding village belles 55
Spreading the radiance of tickling colloquial
Country cant
Telugu
Excelling all the tongues of the earth
A language that gives you
Fame beyond the four corners 57
Where did She hide anything from you?
Never ever boast your service to the
Cherished Telugu nation 59
Daily praying for a new find –
Of word treasure, a treasure that lights your life
Would (a) thousand lives be enough? 61
To repay the debts of three mothers?
Where, where is the wanderer?
The peripatetic incessant traveller?
Running at jet speed for a morsel of food,
Holding his tummy; looking at
The mirror images of mother
Through the lenses of sweat drops
Adorning the hard laborers -
Struggling with backbreaking toil 64
Anointing the bruised hearts with cream of
Affection; and regurgitating
The fond memories with teary eyes 68
Getting revived every day with new energy
Uttering, laying foundation for a golden future
Growing into an unbelievable knowledge-banyan tree 70
With umpteen (hanging) prop roots
Becoming a string of
Scruples and ideals
For that daring adventurer
Everything is possible
And at all times, blessed
Auspicious bells ring 72
(Numbers at right margin correspond to the lines in the
original Telugu song)
© English
Translation by Tenneti Venkateswara Rao 2015
Blessed is Telugu language and blessed are its past and
present poets and of course its true inheritors and admirers. Which language
can boast of 72 distinct ragas? Of course it’s got to be Telugu. Padma
Vibhushan Dr. Balamuralikrishna authored a classic music book (green colored tome)
with the 72 ragas as back as 1972. Now, the young extempore Swaravinapani has come out with a unique
song on mother (mater, matru), which encapsulates all the 72 ragas in a single
melodious song. A real test of a
language (mother tongue or an adopted tongue) is this: Whether the language can
help you cope up with the extreme fluctuations of emotions that are part of any
real authentic life experience. It means the language should be able to
transport the individual to the zeniths of joy as well as to the nadirs of
despair – and every emotional shade in between. Ideally the language should be
able to carry a human being beyond the descriptive language-laden existence to
the most exciting state of experience; to the very sensitive silent emotional
state where language and emotion cease, dissolve into a pure void. And languages
that can help us achieve such a difficult transformation in the shortest span
of time (second or millisecond) and experience will be considered the most
subtle, profound, and versatile tools of expression. Also a language must
bestow indescribable beauty on its practitioner(s). In all these strict
objective tests, to me Telugu comes out ahead of many national and world
languages. It’s no wonder that the language has been judged as the second best
alphabet in a recent World Alphabet Olympics (1012). Earlier English used to be
prized for its speed with typewriters (and pencil shorthand script - Pitman)
and thus its patronage by worldwide journalists. Today with modern computer,
software tools (voice recognition), and pocket devices with umpteen language
applications, any and every language can be typed, audio recorded, and
transported across continents with dizzying speeds. To me languages are like a
group of princesses always in a rush to the next beauty contest, constantly
changing their jewelry of slang words, expressions, and vocabulary.
