INDIA
Delhi, Agra, Chennai, Benares, Jaipur, the names of places that have the scent of spices and incense, the weight of silks gilded with embroideries, heavy with pearls. India captured my heart the first time I landed there at night, and drove by hands warming around fires, wandered the marketplaces, smiled back at the warmth of the people I met. I left part of my heart there, so I kept returning until I created the book Still Point India.
Below the images you will find my poem India Song. It’s in the book, in both English and Hindi, translated by the playwright and novelist Mridula Behari, who lives and works in Jaipur. We read it together at the opening of my exhibition at Kriti Gallery in Varanasi and also at the University of Chicago as part of the Eye on India Festival.
Pink Towers, Varanasi
Along the Ganges, Varanasi
India Song
India,
India,
Early light
bathes the river,
in red, gold, rose,
saffron sunrise,
indigo night
lifted like a sari
on the breeze
from the opposite shore,
so sacred
even breathing
is a prayer.
India,
India,
to say your name
is to chant it,
dance it,
mystic letters hang on the air
like drifts of incense
in the still evening
and an ocean of flickering flames
dazzle the sacred stairs,
luminous, glowing,
fireflies underfoot.
Kohl-eyed infants,
bent-backed men,
women with hennaed hands
like vessels, like shells,
waiting, watching,
walking as in dreams,
and all the while,
hallowed river waves
lap at the ghat steps
like thirsty tongues.
And the pyres burn on,
restoring ash to ash,
transporting life
to next life.
India,
India,
a single shining thread,
that silk, that solitude,
peace, tranquility,
eye of the storm calm,
karmic calm
Spice and passion,
resignation,
life,
so much life,
copious, conspicuous,
serene and chaotic,
vivid as holi,
lovely as truth.
Life after life,
and certainty.
India,
India,
sitar, tabla,
I dance to you,
my ears blessed,
heart wide,
eyes filled with wonder,
changed, transformed,
returned anew.
Life after life,
I touch you
in my dreams at night,
across the world,
a mere day
between your soil and mine.
My river,
merges with yours,
mingles in my mind,
as you have touched my soul,
and made in me a home.
Susan Aurinko, 2013