Somewhere around the dawn • केव्हा तरी पहाटे..

I’m not even ashamed to admit that I have a very limited patience for poetry. But some poems make me wonder why only a few people can create something as beautiful as a poem. Suresh Bhat is one of the notable Marathi poet, also a Marathi Ghazal writer, who has written many beautiful pieces that I find intriguing. ‘Kevha tari pahaate‘ is one of them, later turned into a beautiful composition by Pt. Hridaynath Mangeshkar and sung by the legendary & my favourite, Asha Bhosle. Again, I don’t know why, but here’s my attempt at translation :

केव्हा तरी पहाटे उलटून रात गेली
मिटले चुकून डोळे हरवून रात गेली

Somewhere around the dawn,
night came to end,
I drifted off, though for a moment,
and the night was lost to me..

सांगू तरी कसे मी, वय कोवळे उन्हाचे
उसवून श्वास माझा फसवून रात गेली

I can think of no way to describe;
the dayspring was juvenile still,
the night escaped in stealth,
undoing the seam of my breath..

कळले मला न केव्हा सुटली मिठी जराशी
कळले मला न केव्हा निसटून रात गेली

How did I not see the loosening embrace?
How did I not see the night slipping away..?

उरले उरात काही आवाज चांदण्यांचे
आकाश तारकांचे उचलून रात गेली

A few whispers of a few stars,
that’s all that is left in my heart;
the rest, the whole universe,
the night took it all..

स्मरल्या मला न तेव्हा माझ्याच गीतपंक्ती
मग ओळ शेवटाची सुचवून रात गेली

Couldn’t recall the verses
of my own poem, silly me;
but the night, before leaving,
hinted at the last line for me..