Saturday 3 February 2024

My loneliness and I by Sheila Ash ( original by Jagit Singh)

A language buddy sent a link to a Hindi poem used as a song in the Indian movie Silsila.
You can see a clip here on YouTube. The Hindi is

Main Aur Meri Tanhai (मैं और मेरी तन्हाई) Song by Jagjit Singh

आवारा हैं गलियों में मैं और मेरी तन्हाई
जाएँ तो कहाँ जाएँ
जाएँ तो कहाँ जाएँ
हर मोड़ पे रुस्वाई
मैं और मेरी तन्हाई
मैं और मेरी तनहाई

ये फूल से चेहरे हैं हँसते हुए गुलदस्ते
कोई भी नहीं अपना बेगाने हैं सब रस्ते
राहें हैं तमाशाई राही भी तमाशाई
मैं और मेरी तन्हाई
मैं और मेरी तनहाई

अरमान सुलगते हैं सीने में चिता जैसे
क़ातिल नज़र आती है दुनिया की हवा जैसे
रोती है मेरे दिल पर बजती हुई शहनाई
मैं और मेरी तन्हाई
मैं और मेरी तनहाई

आकाश के माथे पर तारों का चराग़ां है
पहलू में मगर मेरे ज़ख्मों का गुलिस्तां है
आँखों से लहू टपका दामन में बहार आई
मैं और मेरी तन्हाई
मैं और मेरी तन्हाई
मैं और मेरी तन्हाई

This inspired me to adapt its words and sentiments into my own poem -

Where should we go my loneliness and I?
fated now to wander street after street
where faces smile as if handing a bouquet of flowers in welcome.
But this is not our home , everything and everyone feels a stranger looking at us in judgement
while the mournful cries of my heart are like a piper's funeral lament.
Stars may dance on in the sky
but my loneliness flowers as wounds as bloodied tears stain my face.

(C) Sheila Ash, 2024 

chromakinetic By Comdr-Ferox



 

 


 


 



Friday 29 December 2023

Our Stars

Hiding close the southern horizon but both visible facing due south  on 25 Oct 20023.

We always shone brightly together, RIP N, Always loved, S


 


 

 


 

 

 

 

Tuesday 26 December 2023

Book Review: The Wall by John Lanchester

The Wall The Wall by John Lanchester
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I first heard part of this book abridged on BBC R4 and only recently managed to sit down and start it in earnest. Dystopian fiction, a world after what is only known as The Change, after which sea levels have risen dramatically and Britain was built a defensive perimeter Wall round all its shoreline to keep out the Others. Lanchester creates well his bleak world where people man the wall as sentries for years at a time,where the Others try to scale it, those who succeed are chipped and put to work as Help, those that don't die, the sentries on duty when there is a breach are sentenced and put to sea. Kavanagh is our narrator as he begins his two year stint on the Wall.
This an addictive read, with good world building and a steadily building up storyline. The compelling book was longlisted for the 2019 Booker and deservedly so.