All-Pervading Poetry (Kavitako Vyapti) - Balkrishna Sama

Picking up a huge basket, a holy man

ventured out to the forest to gather poetry.

Through hills and streams, pastures and fields,

he searched every waterfall, fruit and bush,

but nowhere could he find it,

so he decided such things were out of season,

at a loss he had set off home

when he came upon an aesthete.

To his enquiry this man replied,

"Is poetry not everywhere?

If you look at those falls through prosaic eyes,

even they will be dry, just declaring the void

left by the hair which falls out as youth passes;

but what could dry up these waters,

or make this hillside bald?

"Holy man, look with redoubled love

at the heart's smooth surface

where foaming blood gathers;

gather up all this sad world's blows,

attack with a powerful breath;

lift waves of experience to your head,

scatter pure drops till your eyes are wet,

make your vision subtle with sympathy,

look closely: you will see the blood

which runs through the veins of these rocks,

you will touch the hearts of stones,

the cliffs will shower nectar,

you will have poetry to drink!"

With this the aesthete faded away,

melting like beeswax in the sun,

and the holy man's eyes softened too.

The trees melted like resin, the fruits like honey,

the green fields dissolved into lakes,

the whole world thawed like snow,

the sky dissolved to become the Ganga,

the stars were all droplets of water.

And then the holy man knew

he meant no more than a teardrop;

throughout the world, in each atom's womb,

pervading destruction's terrible sound,

he found poetry surging forth.

---

Balkrishna Sama (1903-1981) Nepal

Translated Michael James Hurt

Source: Himalayan Voices An Introduction to Modern Nepali Literature, Translated and Edited by Michael James Hurt, University of California Press, 1991