Tap tap topi topi tap..

टप टप टोपी टोपी टप ..

टप टप टोपी टोपी टप ..
टप टप टोपी टोपी टोपे में जो डूबे
फर फर फरमाइशी देखे हैं अजूबे
उलट पलट गलत सलत ठाईं
झुबलि किधर जाईं

टप टप टोपी टोपी टप ..
टप टप टोपी टोपी टप ..

कुत्ते बिल्ली बिल्लियों की मूछों की फलासी
ताज़ा ताज़ा दो दो प्याज़ा रिंग शिंग बाशी
टुपुर टुपुर नाचे नूपुर पायी
झुबलि किधर जाईं

टप टप टोपी टोपी टप ..
टप टप टोपी टोपी टप ..

--- गुलज़ार

Canadians

Here are
our signatures:
geese, fish, eskimo
faces, girl-guide
cookies, ink-drawings
tree-plantings, summer
storms and winter
emanations.

We look
like a geography but
just scratch us
and we bleed
history, are full
of modest misery
are sensitive
to double-talk double-take
(and double-cross)
in a country
too wide
to be single in.

Are we real or
did someone invent
us, was it Henry
Hudson Etienne Brûlé
or a carnival
of village girls?
Was it
a flock of nuns
a pity of indians
a gravyboat of
fur-traders, professional
explorers or those
amateurs map-makers
our Fathers
of Confederation?

Wherever you are
Charles Tupper Alexander
Galt D'arcy McGee George
Cartier Ambrose Shea
Henry Crout Father
Ragueneau Lork Selkirk
and John A: however
far into northness you have walked--
when we call you
turn around and
don't look so surprised.

--- Miriam Waddington, (Winnipeg, Canada)

Poem from "Useless Knowledge"

You who are passing by

well dressed in all your muscles

clothing which suits you well

or badly 

or just about 

you who are passing by 

full of tumultuous life within your arteries

glued to your skeleton 

as you walk with a sprightly step athletic awkward

laughing sullenly, you are all so handsome

so commonplace

so commonplacely like everyone else

so handsome in your commonplaceness

diverse

with this excess of life which keeps you

from feeling your bust following your leg

your hand raised to your hat

your hand upon your heart

your kneecap rolling softly in your knee

how can we forgive you for being alive…

You who are passing by

well dressed in all your muscles

how can we forgive you

that all are dead

You are walking by and drinking in cafés

you are happy she loves you

or moody worried about money

how how

will you ever be forgiven

by those who died

so that you may walk by

dressed in all your muscles

so that you may drink in cafés

be younger every spring

I beg you

do something

learn a dance step

something that gives you the right

to be dressed in your skin in your body hair

learn to walk and to laugh

because it would be too senseless

after all

for so many to have died

while you live

doing nothing with your life.

--- Charlotte Delbo

घुघुआ मन्ना (लोरी)

1)

घुघुआ मन्ना 

खेलत खेलत एक कौड़ी पउलीं

उ कौड़िया हम गंगा बहउलीं

गंगा मइया बालू दिहलीं

उ बलुइया हम भड़भुजवा के दिहलीं

भड़भुजवा दिहलस भूजा

ऊ भुजवा घसकरवा के दिहलीं 

घसकरवा दिहलस घास

ऊ घसिया हम गइया के दिहलीं

गइया दिहलस दूध 

ऊ दुधवा हम राजा के दिहलीं

राजा दिहलें घोड़ा

ओही घोड़ा आइलां

ओही घोड़ा जाईलां

तबला बजाइलां

तबला में पइसा

लाल बगइचा

पुरान भीत गिरेले

नई भीत उठेले

बुढ़िया माई सम्हरले रहिहा ।

घुघुआ मन्ना

2)

घुघुआ मन्ना
उपजे धनमा
कान दुनू सोनमा
रे बौआ तू कथी के
एली के की बेली के
माय बाप चमेली के
पितिया पितम्बर के
फूफू ... कठगूलर के
लाल घर उठे, पुरान घर गिरे।

3)
घुघुआ झूल
कनेर के फूल
बाबू के जूठ कूठ के खाय
मम्मी खाय
मम्मी के झूठ कूठ कौआ खाए
लाल घर उठे, पुरान घर गिरे।

4)
घुघुआ मन्ना, उपजे धन्ना
बाबू खाए दूध-भतवा
कुतवा चाटे पतवा
आबे दे रे कुतवा
मारबऊ दू लतवा
गे बुढ़िया बर्तन बासन
सब सरिया के रखिहे तू
नया घर उठे, पुरान घर गिरे।

5)
अलिया गे मलिया गे
घोड़ा बरद खेत खईछऊ गे
कहाँ गे?
डीह पर गे
डीहsक रखवार के गे?
बाबा गे
बाबा गेलखुन पूर्णिया गे
लाल लाल बिछिया लैथुन गे
कोठी पर झमकैथुन गे
लाल घर उठे, पुरान घर गिरे।

6)
तोरा मायो न झुलैलकऊ
तोरा बापो न झुलैलकऊ
तोरा तार तर वाली मौसियो नई झुलैलकऊ
तोरा हमहीं झुलैलियऊ
लाल घर उठे, पुरान उठे।

Why Are Your Poems so Dark?

Isn't the moon dark too,
most of the time?

And doesn't the white page
seem unfinished

without the dark stain
of alphabets?

When God demanded light,
he didn't banish darkness.

Instead he invented
ebony and crows

and that small mole
on your left cheekbone.

Or did you mean to ask
"Why are you sad so often?"

Ask the moon.
Ask what it has witnessed.

--- Linda Pastan