Eight Songs
2024; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 17; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/thr.2024.a918459
ISSN1939-9774
Autores ResumoEight Songs Mirabai (bio) translated from the Braj Bhasha by Chloe Martinez translator's introduction Mirabai was a poet who lived in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in what is now Northern India. She was a Rajput princess who gave up her royal status and refused marriage to devote herself to her true love: God, in the form of Krishna. She is considered by many Hindus to be a saintly figure, and her poems, which were passed along orally as songs and eventually collected in handwritten and then print anthologies, are still popular in India today. Mira's religious life, as expressed in these poems, included rejecting traditional hierarchies of caste and gender, speaking directly to God as a lover, and being miraculously protected from attempts on her life by disapproving relatives. (It was good for a woman in medieval India to be pious, but better for her to be married.) Many of these poems express a kind of hyperfeminine, abject devotion to an often-absent masculine God. At the same time, their tone is often anything but submissive: Mira confidently claims God as her intimate, berates him for his absences, and has sharp words for meddling relatives, gossipy neighbors, and religious hypocrisy. According to conventions of North Indian bhakti poetry, the last couplet of each poem includes the poet's name—a useful way to sign an oral text. The first couplet is usually sung as a refrain. These translations often thread that refrain, italicized and sometimes fragmented, through the poem. In doing so, I hope that they give some sense of how the refrain functions when sung: it moves as the poem does, accruing meaning, deepening. [End Page 150] Mira Wants Answers Beguiler! Where'd you go after you took my heart? I fell for you, and you hijacked my mind! I turn to honey at the sound of your voice. You took my heart— I keep thinking, I've been poisoned! I'm dying! —took my heart, broke my trust, left, set my boat adrift. Where'd you go? Mira says, When will I see you, darling? God? Have you gone off to the big city? [End Page 151] Mira Stays Up Late I'm the one who stays awake while whole world sleeps— the lonely woman sitting in the palace wide awake her eyes done up with elegant tears while the world sleeps who spends the night counting stars I'm the one watching every moment for his face— Mira says, My love, Lord, we were together once. Now long-distance just won't do. [End Page 152] Mira Tells a Story In Braj Village I witnessed something wild: a milkmaid put her pitcher on her head and saw God. She forgot the word "yogurt." She called out the Beloved's name instead: "Come and get some tasty Krishna!" In the groves and lanes of the village, the Mesmerizer draws every eye. Mira's man is Lord Mountain-Lifter: The Dark One.The Dreamy.The Delectable. [End Page 153] Mira Wants to Get Away Somewhere Let's go to that country, darling, let's go to that place. If you tell me to, I'll have my sari dyed a bride's red. If you tell me to, I'll wear saffron like a holy man. Let's go— If you tell me to, I'll line the part of my hair with pearls. that country, darling— If you tell me to, I'll leave my hair messy. Mira's man lifts mountains; he's her King: she lives by his word. [End Page 154] Mira's Eyes My greedy eyes can't make him appear,but—oh, friend—they keep the lookout. I stand in the doorway, watching for my Mesmerizer.I've thrown off the sparkly veil they call honor. Set myself free. Mother-in-law and sister-in-law hem me in night and day,but my eyes can't be bothered. Restless. Uncontrollable. My greedy eyes / appear Oh, friend / keep looking You want to call me good, or bad? I bear each judgment, head high:Lord Mountain-Lifter is Mira's beloved. She won't live without him. [End Page 155] Mira...
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