Thursday, June 09, 2016
The Besotted Follower––Poems for Mirabai
Mirabai was a 16th century poet/saint in India. From childhood, she reverenced Krishna, and never wavered in her devotion. Her family married her to a prince, but she hated the role of wife, even in her aristocratic position. When her husband was killed in battle, she left the shelter of his difficult household, and ended up singing her songs on the road and then becoming a beggar in a welcoming city. Her songs, known as bhajans, were sung all over India and indeed are still sung to this day. All of her poems/songs focus on her undying love for Krishna.
Poems For Mirabai
THE BESOTTED FOLLOWER
To dance in this field
of radiance,
what will I give?
My good name, long since
taken from me.
My tattered robe,
with mud for its hem--
o, no, haven’t seen it for days.
Family, friends—all have vanished,
have turned their faces away.
Still, I dance,
moving this way or that,
following the inner currents,
celebrating the hidden bliss,
my lone partner
Krishna and his silver flute,
that music which plays only for those
willing to be shattered
again and again,
ravished by sweetness,
torn by that joy.
Dorothy Walters
from "Cloth of Fine Gold"
(to be included in forthcoming collection, "Some Kiss We Want")
