Translated from the Hindi by Surabhi Katyal
Puppet of Clay
Puppet of clay,
Dancing away
Peeps and peeks, hears and speaks
Runs around, bounds and leaps.
When it achieves something, it feels proud,
But when Maya leaves, tears come around.
Mind, word and deed all get lured in
Into this want
Where will they settle when it all falls apart?
Raidas says the world is a gamble,
And he feels affection ample
For this puppet of clay
Just gambling away.
O Kalari
O Kalari!
Hand me a cup,
Cup of that liquor,
A cup that will mellow this Yogi (seeker).
Says Kalari,
I will.
I will give you the cup,
A cup you can sup
And take your head
In its stead.
Hey Kalari,
What have you done?
This exchange,
How have you spun?
A head for a cup?
You have such pluck!
Says Kalari
The cup is priceless
Against the head
And yet,
People are prepared,
(Not despaired)
to detach their neck
by hanging it
on a branch.
Oh, look at you blanch!
The one who consumes,
Oh, subsumes,
The contents of the cup:
Will witness the sun
And the moon in bloom
And will never wilt
Or die.
Spontaneously,
The furnace swells
And overflows.
The nectar,
it wells
Out from its source.
Raidas says
Drink this liquor,
Or is it nectar?
All that matters
Is it faces the face of the Guru.
Note: The Kalar/Kalal/Kalwar are an Indian caste in the northern, central and western regions, traditionally associated with the distillation and selling of liquor.
My Lord, You, the Sandalwood Tree
My lord, you!
You, the sandalwood tree
And we, the common,
Tree of Arandi (castor)
Oh, we rise higher
In your company.
Your perfumed scent
Masks our smell
Until your scent
Is all that is present.
We are vice,
You, beneficence.
There is a reason we stay
In your refuge.
You are silken,
Pure,
Like the song of the
golden oriole.
We are but poor,
Insignificant critters.
So, we stick close
to you my lord,
Like how the fly hovers
Besides the ambrosial nectar.
Our caste is small,
Repute also small,
Small is our existence,
We did not serve Ram
Says Raidas chamar (leather-worker).
My Caste
My caste is the famous chamar,
yet my heart
is filled with the essence of
Govind and Ram.
Saints don’t drink liquor,
Not even made of Ganges
And its holy water.
Yet
the prestige of Ganges
remains pristine
even as one pours down liquor
down its streams.
Oh, the liquor
becomes clean.
In the same vein,
’tis a decree
that the palm tree
is unholy
like the lowly,
wandering crow.
Devotees though,
inscribe the name of God
onto the same palm’s leaf
and it forgoes
the ill luck and odds,
and receives
prayers, bows, and kowtows.
The non-righteous
do unravel
the tethers of the boat.
The condemned and the pious
—alike and together—
find themselves soaked
in their bid to cross
the waters.
Raidas invokes
The sound of Ra
And all the saints cross over,
The waters
Without qualms.
Note: In the context of Raidas’ entire body of work, the sound of Ra most likely refers to the Nirguna (formless, literally without attributes) Ram.
Sant Raidas (around 15th century) is a leading Bhakti-era poet and singer. He was born into an untouchable caste of leather-workers and, like the weaver-saint-poet Kabir, practiced the profession, and went on to include his caste ‘chamar’ in songs to refer to himself (two of the translations here are examples of that acknowledgment). Raidas’ songs are also extant in the modern world with Begumpura Shehar ka Naun, sung as a Gurbani, included in Guru Granth Sahib, to the popular bhajan Tum Chandan Hum Paani. However, translations of him are scant, especially in comparison to the vast body of work of Kabir. He is also the central figure within the Ravidassia religious movement.
Surabhi Katyal is a writer, translator, psychotherapist, and researcher based in Rajasthan, India. She also identifies as a spoonie because of her decade long chronic pain and psychosocial disability. Surabhi is currently translating the works of Sant Raidas and Maithili Sharan Gupt. She is also officially translating acclaimed Tamil author A. Vennila’s poetry collection A Playground for Musical Notes into Hindi. She is hoping that her cats will let her focus more on her writing and translation projects (unlikely).