Lekha Nath Paudyal
A parrot called a bird a twice-born child,
By Fate into an iron case beguiled,
I find, O God! nor peace nor quiet rest,
For even in a dream, I lie opprest.
My parents and relations that there are,
Do in a forest corner dwell afar.
To whom shall I my agonies outpour,
From this, my iron cage, lamenting sore?
Sometimes my tears roll down my swelling eyes,
At times I feel a corpse, my spirit files,
Another times I madden and I jump,
Recalling woodland pleasures with a lump.
A poor and little forest wanderer I,
Fed on wild fruits, delighted who did fly.
Have been by Fate allured into this cage,
Destiny oh! has strange mysterious ways.
How far might I have freely roamed and flown,
Into what different countries soared and gone !
Alas ! in vain, why Fate has me beguiled,
Into this dungeon, a forest-wandering child.
Cool waters and cool shades of verdant wood,
Really delicious fruits to pick for food.
Ah ! All those things are vanished dreams today,
What now remains? A fear, my mind must sway!
Delightful shades of forests, rich and green!
Affection for the near ones that have been.
Feasting on food and wandering in the wild
Have now become but dreams to this poor child.
My aged ailing parents for me pine,
Tears in their eyes, dejected, dropping brine.
They may be everyday beating their breast,
Our close ties broken, Fate has us opprest.
I see but enemies all around me lie,
There’s not a thing on which I can rely.
What shall I do? And how affect a flight?
To whom unburden woes in this sad plight.
The bird to whom the open boundless blue
Was field for flights of pleasure to renew,
Has now, alas! for his life’s singe stay
A narrow case of iron here today.
Seeking to break this dungeon open here,
Against the bars that check my free career,
The hard-struck beak is blunted, wings and feet
Are cramped. How shall I pass long days? Defeat!
Sometimes the cramping cold, sometimes the heat,
A prattling now, and then a silent seat.
After the varying whims of boys that play,
My fate changes her course perverse today.
When I recall the shows Fate displays,
Then like a mad thing do I pass my days,
My tears pour down, then cracks and breaks my breast,
My heart constantly wails by Fate opprest.
Dark apprehensions in long waves arise.
Shocked and bewildered, I survey the skies.
Without Death’s call the life-breath cannot cease,
Excruciating must I end my lease.
A stinted measure of some third class rice,
That, half a fill, doth Destiny devise.
I cast a thirsty glance upon the pot
Devoid of water, such is my life’s sad lot.
Dry is my throat, my bondage sharp!
A prating still compelled, I hate downright.
Should I refuse to speak, brandishing cane
They threaten me with thrashing once again.
One says, “Look here! this is an ass’s colt !”
Another says, “He is displeased! Behold!”
A third induces me God to repeat,
Says, “Atmaram! Read on! Be famed! A wit!”
What sort of fellow is this tiny life?
How comes he here? What food and of which type,
Takes he within this cage? There’s none to know.
And so my heart must tingle in my woe.
To be a life subjected to a bold,
And to be forced to callers to respond.
Strange Fate! Thou giv’st me yet such stinted measure,
Of sustenance ! How hard, thy cruel pleasure.
Hard Providence! Thou didst me just provide
With power of speech and reasoning, my pride,
And this has been the parent of my woes-
Scoldings and threats, and a confinement close.
Man must indulge in strange and merry sport.
Anguishing me, a case for my resort.
How sinful is this human course, this crime,
Help me escape, O Pitying God sublime!
The human race hostile to virtues fair,
Exploits the worthy till the breast dries sheer.
Till winged breath be taken not away.
How should it be content or kind today!
So long as on this wide terrestrial plain
A single human being shall remain,
O Lord ! let not a parrot’s life be given,
Suddenly comes a sense to me, O Heaven!
Translated by Laxmi Prasad Devkota
[Lekhanath Paudyal, popularly known as Kavi Shiromani (Crown of the Poets) was born in 1884 in a village called Arghaun-Aarchalé, the eastern Gandaki Zone of Kaski District. After completing his study from a school of Kaski, the poet went to Kathmandu and joined Tindhara Sanskrit School. He wrote poems in Sanskrit too. Initially, he published many of his poems in the magazine Sutisudha printed from Kashi. Lekhanath returned to Kathmandu after completing his study in India. Here, he looked for a job. He got a job of teaching children of the then Prime Minister Bhim Samsher. Considering the activities of his surroundings, he wrote a famous poem named “Pinjarako Suga”—A Parrot in the Cage—at the same time. He is considered one of the greatest romantic poets of Nepal. Some of his published works are Lalitya Buddhi Binod, Ritu Vichar, Satya-Kali Samvad, Mero Ram, Tarun Tapasi, Ganga-Gauri and Laxmi Puja. He was given the title ‘Kavi Siromani’—the Crown of Poets—by the nation with a great honor in 1951. In he was given a chariot ride in Kathmandu. Besides this, Lekhanath got ‘Tribhuvan Puraskar’ in 1969. He worked as a member of Royal Nepal Academy since its inception. He became a full-time member of this institution as well. He passed away in 1965. ]