C. Narayana Reddy
The voice has no old age
Except life
When years pass in life
The face carves wrinkles.
The legs hang and balance
Go on walking.
This is not applicable
To the voice of power.
It stands erect forever
And proceeds unruffled.
Whenever the mind calls upon
It does not stand with folded hands.
Its freedom is its life.
Whenever it wants to emerge
It flies and perches on the tongue.
It is the voice
That has no temperament of rising,
But not the age to set.
The bed-ridden man
In his decrepit old age
Cannot rise unless one lifts him
Whereas the voice is not like that
For it has no interdependence.
As long as the tongue utters
As long as the pen proceeds
The voice-state is in ever-rise.
The looks of over ripened age
Often turn the pages of the past.
The voice glimpses only the present,
The present-borne
Future,
If time does not favor,
The speaking tongue turns dumb
The writing hand cripples down
The voice can prove
Its existence
At least by the shivering fingers.
Title poem “Vaakkuku Vayasu Leidu” from Vaakkuku Vayasu Leidu.
(*Telugu poems translated by Dr. K Rajamouly)
Published
POETCRIT
July-Dec-2022 Vol.21 No.11