Poetry at Sangam
Poetry at Sangam showcases poetry in English and translations as well as essays on poetics and news of new releases.
Once upon a time, there was in a certain village an engaged couple whose marriage was only weeks away. There was an air of great expectancy and rejoicing as the marriage preparations were taking place. Both sets of parents were very happy about the coming marriage. Though the actual ceremony was yet to be solemnized, the two families considered the match almost a fait accompli.
But calamity struck the two happy families. The boy died suddenly, plunging them into deep sorrow and mourning. Though the boy was no more, his parents treated the girl as though she was their daughter-in-law. And the girl accepted this role without a murmur as the love and relationship she had shared with her departed lover had been deep and intense. For the boy’s parents too the girl’s devotion to them and her sense of continued loyalty to their son was a source of great consolation.
Many years passed in such a state of mutual interdependence. During those years many eligible young men approached the girl for her hand in marriage. But she would not entertain the idea of her getting married to another man. In her thinking, she was already married to her former lover for all intent and purposes.
This state of affairs was, however, a matter of great sorrow and discontent to the girl’s parents. They were sorely distressed to see their daughter literally fade away into an old maid. Eventually the girl herself began to realize that she was wasting her life in a false sense of comfort with thoughts of her dead lover. So, giving in to her parent’s encouragement, she finally consented to get married to a young man of her village.
At this juncture, the boy’s parents intervened. They objected to the apparent act of betrayal by their son’s betrothed. In desperation, the girl’s parents turned to a soothsayer for his advice.
They convinced the boy’s parents that the best way out of this dilemma was to act according to the soothsayer’s instruction.
On the appointed day, the two sets of parents accompanied by the girl went to the soothsayer’s house in order to communicate with the dead boy. The girl was asked to say whatever she wanted to say to the boy, so she sang:
Many moons have passed
Since you left me
To go beyond the river,
And I’m growing old
Waiting for your return.
But now there is a new feeling,
New leaves on trees,
New rains in the skies
And a new man
Offering new comfort.
If you can come back,
Tell me
And I will wait for you.
But otherwise
Send me a message,
So that I can cease
Mourning and waiting.
After listening to the girl’s message the soothsayer chanted his magic incantations and fell into a deep trance. He lay on the floor unconscious, without any movement but for some flailing of his arms and legs. During this trance his spirit was transported to the land of the dead where he came across the dead boy who was walking past him with a bundle of bamboos on his shoulders. The soothsayer stopped him and began to talk to him. When the boy asked about his sweetheart on earth, the messenger repeated the song she had sung for him. The boy listened to the soothsayer and turning to him with a soulful look sang his own message to the girl:
Many moons have passed indeed
Since I travelled
Beyond the river,
And I sojourn now
Among my kind,
For, between us
The river intervenes
But now
The fairest among the living
Cannot be left waiting,
For she cannot be mine.
Tell her to seek another,
As I am building a new home
For my bride of this land.
The soothsayer realized that the building materials the boy was collecting were meant for the construction of his new home.
By and by the soothsayer regained consciousness. He told the parents what he saw in the land of the dead and repeated the boy’s message to the girl in song.
The boy’s parents realized their mistake in trying to control the girl’s life for a false hope and relinquished their claim on her.
The girl was then married off to the young man who had proposed to her and they lived happily ever after.