MAHA KAVI  BHARATHIYAR’S  ENGLISH ESSAYS  &  POEMS.

Have you read the english writings of Mahakavi Bharathi? If not, please go through a small example, an article written by him in English. About his writings Navalar S.Somasundara Bharathi, a close associate of Mahakavi from his childhood and later a Professor in Annamalai University writes as follows:--

“These contributions in English afford luminous proof of Bharathi’s candour of his perfervid humanitarian sympathies and of his highly emotional and spiritual ecstacies. His mysticism is not of the opaque hue. On the contrary, clarity and perspicacity are as much in evidence as reasoned faith and abiding Dharmic outlook on life enhance their value. His intense longing for the divine joy and faith in life eternal give a new charm to his writings in English, where, if we miss the racy radiant brilliance of his Tamil writings, we meet with more daring and a wider range of speculative thought, directly bearing upon the modern life of mankind, rare to be found to the same extent  in his Tamil writings. They reveal the inward workings of the poet’s mind in all its ramifications.”

With the above credentials, we now see one essay and one poem for sample and try to give more articles in the days to come:-

                                               
 “New Birth”

Ring all the temple bells. For India is born again.

Her new name is the one that she had long, long ago – the Bharata-land. Great is her thirst for new things. But, after all, the new things are really older than the old. The world is a cycle.

Ring all the temple bells. The re-born Mother has begun to speak, to sing and to dance. She plays, the infant Devi, daughter of old Himalaya and the pre-destined bride of Mahadeva, the Great God; and her play is the working of miracles. Her speech and her song send a thrill of joy into the core of the world.

Ring all the temple bells. The baby mother opens her Veda and reads. The mighty chantings of her ancient seers, intoxicated with love and illumined by the knowing of the Eternal, those old songs of sacrifice and immortality – she reads them greedily once again; and once again, she understands them rightly. For she has met her Guru, Maha Deva himself.

Oh, ring all the temple bells. Make feasts and festivals. The Mother is gaining secular knowledge. She is learning arts, sciences, trades. Behold her excelling her astonished teachers in all things. Behold how she teaches under the pretence of being taught.

Oh, ring, ring, ring all the temple bells. Make feasts and festivals. Pour out songs of praise and thanksgiving to the high Heavens. Proclaim universal joy. For the Mother has realised her destiny. She has met the Great Divine – as her Lover.

                                                      PEACE

                          (Written during Christmas 1916)

My heart loves Peace.

But once I fought against God. I raised my head like a tower.

My arms were of steel, of fire.

My pride was great, for folly hath pride.

And I hurt the weak for pleasure.

I preached that woman was a slave.

For I knew brother man was the same.

I cast small stones at birds, for joy of breaking wings.

I deemed it no stealth to steal from the shrine.

For I deemed that this God was but stone.

But no, but no.

This God is real, for He smote at pride.

And the proverb says, “The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom”.