Poem: Antariksh ki pyaas / The thirst for space
Original in Hindustani, followed by its English translation (though not as lyrical):
Antariksh ki pyaas
Woh bachpan ki kitaabe
jisne dikhaye sitaare
aaj bhi yaad se nihaare
Durbin ki drishti me jagmag falak
aur yaano ki gati se graho ki jalak
Kalpana se Chaand par chalna
aur brahmand ke brahman me dubna
Aise lafzon se janmi thi antariksh ki pyaas
Jiski mitin nahi aaj bhi aas
Ek pal socho toh sahi
Ki ek pustakalay ne likhi
mere zindagibhar ki likhayi
The thirst for space
Those books from childhood
which showed the stars
I reminisce even today
A telescope’s view of the starry sky
and glimpses of planets as spacecraft swing by
Imagining walking on the Moon
and immersing in cosmic curiosity
Such words birthed the thirst for space
whose hope remains unquenched
Mark for a moment
how one library wrote
the lifetime of my writing
Notes: I wrote this poem for the Day 2 prompt of the Global Poetry Writing Month:
Today, we’d like to challenge you to write your own poem in which you recount a childhood memory. Try to incorporate a sense of how that experience indicated to you, even then, something about the person you’d grow up to be.
In those school days of discovering space through books, I knew it would shape who I want to be and what I want to do. Space is all-encompassing, and encompass my mind it did. Fast forward to today and I’m a space writer. I dedicate this poem and integral childhood memory to my Dad, who got me a library subscription at a time when we couldn’t even afford that much. 💛
