The oceans were very important at one time and those who could master it ruled the world. Today, the mastery has paled and the masters have no value, and life has moved on. How things change and we fail to take note of it. How edifices erode and wither away with no one to care but a proud wall stands there in ignorance that it has no value. The world is littered with Rotting Castles, Buried Towns, Burnt Prejudices, and Abandoned Websites! I wanted to capture this simple feeling in a poem and here is it in hindi and below it an english translation of it.
Hindi: समंदर, तूने उड़ती मछलियां देखी हैं?
समंदर, तूने सिर्फ रेत देखी है
जिसे तूने हमेशा पैरों तले रौंदा है
वह आज भी भीगे मन से किनारे पड़ी है
तेरे अंदर से निकली तुझसे मिलके खुश होती है
तुझे उस रेत का तो पता नहीं होगा
जो नाराज़ हो कर रेगिस्तान में चली गई
फिर कभी पानी का मुहँ नहीं देखती है
जो मछलियां उसके साथ गयीं वह ऊँट बन गयीं
बची मछलियां रेत से अलग हो कर
अब पहाड़ों पे रहती हैं शेर बन कर
बाकी उड़ गयीं आसमान में पंछी बन कर
उन्हें तेरे होने का पता भी है क्या नहीं पता
तू ने अपना सर पटक लिया पर ना जान पाया
के दुनिया कितनी बड़ी हो गई तेरे बहार
तुझे इसी पे नाज़ है की नदियां अब भी
अपना पानी लेकर तुझ में उलटती हैं
ना देखा की यह पानी, तुझ से ही ले उड़े थे
बादल एक दिन और पहाड़ों को दे आये थे
मन की मछलियां जब आसमान देख लें
तो उड़ भी जाती हैं, उड़ भी जाती हैं..
मन की मछलियां जब आसमान देख लें
तो उड़ भी जाती हैं, उड़ भी जाती हैं..
————–
English Translation: Ocean did you see the fish fly?
O ocean, you have only seen the sand
whom you’ve always crushed under your feet
it still lies next to you with a wet heart
had belonged to you and is happy to meet you
you may not have heard of that sand, which
had unhappily left you and gone to the desert
and never likes to see the face of water
and the fishes that it took, now roam as camels
the remaining fishes left the sand and went
to live on the mountains and became tigers
and others that flew into the sky as birds
i am not sure they now know anything about you
you have often banged your head but never knew
that the world has become huge outside of you
you are happy from the fact that the rivers still
lose themselves and empty their waters into you
did not see that the water was taken away from you
by clouds who had given it to the mountains
the fishes of the mind, when they see the sky
they may just often fly, they would just often fly..
the fishes of the mind, when they see the sky
they often fly, they often fly..
the fishes of the mind, when they see the sky
they often fly, they often fly..