For the love of pain...

Almost....

                                  

                                            you and i 

                                       don't and won't 

                                          and can't

                                    and so one knows

                                yes, it was meant to be...

                                       meant to be 

                                         this way

     

                               if it was meant to be 

                                    any other way

                                 it would have been 

                                        or will be

                                          what is 

                                           is how 

                                   it was meant to be

Rain....

 

you ask

why it is i come back?

what i would love to know

when it was i ever left

or can i even?

did you?'

can you?'

oh! my darling 

the earth it needs rain...

If You Forget Me by Pablo Neruda

I want you to know one thing. 

You know how this is: 
if I look 
at the crystal moon, at the red branch 
of the slow autumn at my window, 
if I touch 
near the fire 
the impalpable ash 
or the wrinkled body of the log, 
everything carries me to you, 
as if everything that exists, 
aromas, light, metals, 
were little boats 
that sail 
toward those isles of yours that wait for me. 

Well, now, 
if little by little you stop loving me 
I shall stop loving you little by little. 

If suddenly 
you forget me 
do not look for me, 
for I shall already have forgotten you. 

If you think it long and mad, 
the wind of banners 
that passes through my life, 
and you decide 
to leave me at the shore 
of the heart where I have roots, 
remember 
that on that day, 
at that hour, 
I shall lift my arms 
and my roots will set off 
to seek another land. 

But 
if each day, 
each hour, 
you feel that you are destined for me 
with implacable sweetness, 
if each day a flower 
climbs up to your lips to seek me, 
ah my love, ah my own, 
in me all that fire is repeated, 
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten, 
my love feeds on your love, beloved, 
and as long as you live it will be in your arms 
without leaving mine.

Analytical Response, Corde:

Pablo Neruda(July 12, 1904 – September 23, 1973)'

Neruda won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971.

Pablo Neruda, a Chilean poet, was recognized for being one of the best worldwide. Neruda, with his South American roots, has won us over with words that leave lingering feelings in our hearts. Neruda favored communism, and often wrote politically influential poetry. Furthermore, even though Neruda was highly successful by the age of 20, he was still struggling financially, and had four unsatisfying relationships; these came to inspire many of his conflictive love poems. Neruda in the poem “If You Forget Me,” expresses himself through the art of poetry, leaving behind subtle hints of his true theme: love is mutual and both parts of the relationship have to put equal effort for it to work, he shows this by using literary devices and distinctive diction to prove this theme.

Pablo Neruda constantly uses metaphors that are symbolic to the message of his poems. Metaphors can be strong and useful because they’re a comparative point where the reader manipulates the metaphoric object, then sees how it resembles the emotion the writer is trying to convey. Most of what Neruda writes in the poem “If You Forget Me” is metaphoric of his relationship. For example, “If you think it long and mad, the wind of banners that passes through my life, and you decide to leave me at the shore of the heart where I have roots (…) ” The first part uses a metaphor, which he then uses to explain what he believes she will do, which is that if she overthinks all their love’s downfalls she’ll end up focusing on the negative side thus leaving him forever. Through his metaphors Neruda describes an inner message about people and how they will only look at the negative side of things when it seems most convenient. Additionally, the second metaphor in this stanza is, “Shore of the heart where I have roots” is so deep, and perfectly describes how lost he is because he is restricted to loving her; she whom he has loved so much and perhaps for so long that it seemed as though the “roots” of his “tree” were deep inside her heart. In other words, he could never really stop loving her; you can never stop loving someone you once loved that much. Brilliantly, Neruda handles metaphors that explain so much in just a few words.

 Pablo Neruda writes strongly about his loved ones at specific times in his life, so we must also rely on his diction to find out his true meaning. For example, “Remember that on that day, at that hour, I shall lift my arms and my roots will set off to seek another land.” That fragment right there can be interpreted in so many different ways; some may say his relationship was lacking passion or perhaps she didn’t really love him back when he needed her to etc. But, when analyzing his word choice it was led to believe that Neruda was tired of living in doubt, of not knowing if she really loved him or not; but if she were to accept she didn’t have feelings for him, he says this: “On that day, at that hour” meaning that he would begin to forget her in that instant then, “My roots will set off to seek another land” he would begin to find someone else worthy of his love. Another example, “But if each day, each hour, you feel that you are destined for me with implacable sweetness, if each day a flower climbs up to your lips to seek me, ah my love, ah my own, in me all that fire is repeated, in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten.” When I read this passage I see a theme, or idea, that the writer is trying to communicate to us; in the passage above, he rephrases the beginning as, “But if each day, each hour.” This is significant because he is implying that he could forget any doubt he had of her if she could just love him back. Through these lines, Neruda shows that his great diction expresses the true meaning of his poems.

 Meaningful metaphors and a specific diction are some of the many techniques Pablo Neruda uses in his writing to enrich his poetry. He says so much in so little, and his words are so carefully crafted to exploit a variety of emotions, and feelings without losing any value in trying to explain his meaning directly.  All that Neruda went through, all of his values, ideals, principles, beliefs, relationships; all of the ups and downs in his life; the moments of desperation and seeking for help, and the years he had to hide below basements because of the warrant for his arrest, or when his first wife left with his only child or perhaps the happier times when he loved a women so much. All of those experiences, everything that life taught him, he poured his heart into his poetry leaving us with writing so meaningful and substantial it leaves us stunned.

Pictures courtsey: Pineterest
More on Neruda here: https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/pablo-neruda

......my soul belongs elsewhere, of that i am certain.....rumi

Most times life takes one to a place from where one understands things differently.

The constantly changing and transient nature of life is such that many a times things, words, phrases, poetry, philosophy, spirituality, events, take on completely different meanings. I say this because of late I am able to understand meanings where earlier I did not see them. This is one such song, a song I have really liked and sung all my life and only now I felt it so differently, and it's meaning as I understand it from my 'now' perspective.....whatever that means!! Hahahahaha! 

Meri jaan, mujhe jaan na kaho meri jaan

Meri jaan!

Jaan na kaho anjaan mujhe, jaan kahan rahti hai sada 

Anjaane, kya jaanein, jaan ke jaaye kaun bhala

 Sookhe saawan baras gaye, itni baar in aankhon se 

Do boondein na barsein, in bheegi palkon se

 Honth jhukein jab hothon par, saans uljhi ho saanson mein 

Do judwa hothon ki, baat kaho aankhon se.....

How does one translate poetry like this? 

How do I explain the depth of meaning of each word, each line.....

Well, let me try....this is my personal understanding......

My beloved, call me not your life,

oh!my dearest!

    Oh! you ignorant one, don't speak of me as your life, cause where is the permanence of life?

      An ignorant may not understand this, but who would take this path knowingly?

                                          Oh! the many times I have cried with dry eyes,

But my moist eyelids have never allowed even two tear-drops to escape (cause that would be an insult to our love)

With your lips bent upon, to meet mine, and our breaths entangled 

Let not the lips speak of what passes between us, allow our eyes to do the talking.....

  Gulzar, the beautiful poet at his very sensual and soulful best......

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulzar

Of bhakti and prem....a bond close to my heart... (Spirituality and Love)

  Out beyond ideas of wrong and right, there is a field.

  I will meet you there.

  Rumi

My first ever engagement with Rumi, (I thought then it was Roomy) was when I was a teenager. I saw the The Rumi Darwaza,  also  known as the Turkish Gate, in Lucknow, Utta Pradesh, India. Rumi Darwaza is an imposing gateway which was built under the patronage of Nawab Asaf-Ud-dowlah in 1784. Oh! how I knew not at the time the meaning it would come to hold for me in later years of my life.

Rumi Darwaza, Lucknow: Photo Credits: Luknowcity.org

And then Rumi lay dormant somewhere in  my memory......

It is only recently that I became engaged in Rumi yet again, when I came across some verses that moved me deeply, and I realized how meaningful and powerful the verses are for the individual and the state of the world at large today.I say engaged “in” 

Rumi  and not “with” Rumi, because once you get introduced to Rumi there is no way that you stay a separate entity than his words. To become 'one' with poetry, nature, love, mysticism, music…..that is the true meaning of spirituality, of life, and one can only ever be “in” the meaning not “with” it.

Rumi was born on the Eastern shores of the Persian Empire on September 30, 1207, in the city of Balkh in what is now Afghanistan and finally settled in the town of Konya (he is buried here too)  in what is now Turkey. (Mental note: to visit soon) Today all three nations: Iran, Turkey and Afghanistan claim him as their national poet. In fact none of these countries as they are today actually existed back in the time of Rumi. Iran was the Persian Empire, a monarchy much larger than what it is today. It included all of today's Iran and Afghanistan also parts of Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkey and Iraq. Turkey had not yet formed then and Afghanistan was part of the Khorasan Province in the old Persian Empire.

Rumi recited poetry for about 25 years wrote ~70,000 verses in which he has covered every morsel of emotion, thought, idea and topic under the sun!

The general theme of Rumi's thought, like that of other mystic and Sufi poets of Persian literature, is essentially that of the concept of a union with his beloved (the primal root) from whom he has been cut off and become aloof — and his longing and desire to restore it.

Rumi believed passionately in the use of music, poetry and dance as a path for reaching God. For Rumi, music helped devotees to focus their whole being on the divine and to do this so intensely that the soul was both destroyed and resurrected.

In other verses Rumi describes in detail the universal message of love:

The lover’s cause is separate from all other causes
Love is the astrolabe of God's mysteries.

If we look closely we see elements of oneness with the creator and humanly love so intertwined in his works.....

One of the verses close to my heart……

I choose to love you in silence, for in silence I find no rejection.
I choose to love you in loneliness, for in loneliness no one owns you but me.
I choose to adore you from a distance, for distance will shield me from pain.
I choose to kiss you in the wind, for the wind is gentler than my lips.
I choose to hold you in my dreams, for in my dreams, you have no end.

~Rumi

Of love, subservience, violence and social change...

Disclaimer: Sociological commentary, not for the extremely emotional: Also, this is merely an opinion, within the (mainly) North-Indian socio-cultural context. others I am sure will have different opinions. Idea is not to win a discussion, idea is to raise questions and initiate discussion.Thank you. 

..............And then there are the women who are forced to pray for their husband's long life even though the husband beat them every day after his pegs and hurls abuses at her.Wonder what the woman whose yelps I hear near our badminton court late in the night, begging her husband to spare her the slaps, prays for on Karva-chauth? What would I pray for? 

http://www.canstockphoto.com/illustration/wife-beater.html#file_view.php?id=4435427

Or is it that the socialization process tells the women to accept the husbands/sons no matter what they do and who they are as HUMANS? Bet the alcoholic, beating husband doesn't care a hoot, but the mother or mother-in-law would force the woman to do the fasting and poojoing the guy. And she would do it for fear of "society" and to save herself and her family (read husband) the ridicule from the "other" women around her. Is it about the men really, that our society needs to change? Do we everyday women need SERIOUSLY to rethink our everyday positions and unquestioningly accepted roles and behaviour patterns in marital and natal families, friend circles, society at large.DO WE NEED TO SPEAK UP AND not unwittingly accept and partake silly traditions? For fun or for anything for that matter!!

 I want my daughters and all their friends, girls and boys, to ASK themselves these questions. I want them to make sure they ask their boyfriends and girlfriends respectively and/or partners to be,questions like: what they think of festivals like 'karva-chauth' in today’s context when India is struggling to bring social justice to it's womenfolk? Can the younger generation on my friends list, opinionated young ladies and gentlemen, who do have an opinion on this particular festival, I know you do, please share it without fear of ridicule on your walls. forums, among yourselves even if it means going against mainstream society and parental values. Because, until you all start thinking and talking and putting your foot down, nothing will change. Because, how can we change mindsets of a society that is not even participating in everyday discussions about everyday societal activities. Are any of you fighting moms for praying for violent husbands? ANYONE? And remember, if you air a view does not always mean you yourself are going through it, it means you are aware that these things happen and you want to change it in your own lives.Cause if we bring the change in our thought process we have helped change one family, ours, family, the basic building block of society.Think, think, ACT.



Comment:  Didi this is something I run into every year coz every one around me fasts. I just simply cannot! I never have and never will. My husband is amazing and loves me to death, but he's not god. Thankfully he agrees so I don't run into a big issue about this. I find it very hard to believe that in the US and in this day and age we are following this blindly and not questioning it at all. And you are right, not evolving as a society.. But then again it's a belief thing and I don't want to offend anyone's.

Response:  I understand your stand totally. Also, the relation between a couple is purely their business. For example, I or you or anyone might hold their partner in high esteem, (I am not questioning that at all) but I think that this festival somehow in some of it's rituals forces women to publicly stamp their marital status as a loving wife who will touch the husband’s feet before food intake irrespective of whether the husband is deserving of such stature or not. And this in a small way I link to the overall manner in which the women look at themselves as subservient to the male. This need not be a conscious looking upon oneself, but surely it has sub-conscious repercussions. 

 An Indian woman is touching the feet of her husband, a tradition to show respect that is embedded in      culture. As painted by a west-Indian artist, circa 1530. This is the ritual followed during Karva-Chauth too all over North India.


Quote from Wiki: (Food for further thought and discussion) : The festival has been criticized as being inherently sexist because there is no reciprocal fasting by males.[26] There have been calls to modify or eliminate the festival by commentators who hold it to be "anti-women" and to "perpetuate the notion of women's dependence on men."[27]Karwa chauth has been cited as a symbol of cultural repression of women by some Indian feminists, such as Madhu Kishwar who has put it in the same class as "Khomeinivad" (i.e., pushing women into position of subservience to their husbands, similar to the family structure allegedly favored by Ayatollah Khomeini).[28] Some writers have asserted that such "rituals work insidiously" to create a "an instrument of social control" that oppresses women and that the even greater popularity of Karwa Chauth among urban, educated participants raises the question of "which is the greater barrier to women's liberation: religion or the market.”

Comment: Can I add my tuppence?.....I think its regressive and helps to perpetuate the theory of women always being subservient .....myth, religion all mixes up to make the stories of non-adherence being fatal and so the tradition to continue this ritual goes on.....why do men need to outlive women?...and how does what I eat anyway have anything to do with any god?...where does one stop?....oh but then the idea is never to...you see. Your life has to be lived according to 'them'....your will and wishes don't count....you are given a few concessions like buy yourself bangles and bling and stay home and brainwash yourself....sorry if I have hurt anyone...but then its all my tuppence...so there....Blech !

Response:  And am not saying "I" am holier than thou to anyone.But, the next generation is MY kids and they just NEED to stop al this. ALL of them as,save them all from what has been rightly calls regressive and repressive behaviours, and not just mine, as they are the "deviants" like I have been all of my years  hahahahaa!! We have to have them THINKING man!!

Comment:  I totally agree that some rituals were created to create the social control over women, but that doesn't apply to most women today, so why do we continue? I think most women don't want to make a change, it's a fun little ritual for them and some men are also fasting with their wives. But no one wants to question it. That's strange.

Response: And is this not where the "market" comes in ? It is the commercialization of it all that has led to the larger numbers of women ignoring any questions their brains might be wanting to raise.It is fine as long as it stays fun but does it? What I am trying to point to are the deep rooted underlying socio-cultural (male centric) ideologies of these innocuous "little" "fun" festivities that we say are "so" difficult to change when bigger issues like "women abuse in society" occur.


This is just a short discussion that has caused a few thinking young minds to open up. Do we all need some serious self analysis??

Spread happiness around for no particular reason..........

We are all dogs. We all love to rush to meet and greet the people we love. We love to be hugged, petted, have our hair ruffled, have someone caress us gently as we lie peacefully. We all love it when someone gives us a treat, we love to have our food served to us and some of us love to prance and jump and spread happiness around for no particular reason...(just that social norms teach us otherwise)....Yes, in more ways than one, deep down we are all dogs.

Each passing day, I feel, we all need to go back to being just that.. honest about our feelings towards other human beings, being able to say openly HUG ME, I need to be touched and petted and being generally happy in life with just a few toys and a bone {okay, knowing me, many of my friends will read much more into this (double-meaning-ed statement) ;)} The walk...yes, if you watch the olden movies (I know you have) Sherlock Holmes, Poirot, Miss Marple....everyone always happy and religiously going for a walk, just for the happiness of the walk and fresh air...not the exercise linked walk of today.....see, we are dogs, we are just forgetting we are.