Te acompaño en tu pesar

Mahatma Gandhi translated a few of Tukaram's poems when he was jailed in Yerwada in 1930.

One of them reads in Marathi:

"जेथे जातो तेथे तू माझा सांगाती । चालविसी हाती धरूनिया ॥१॥

चालो वाटे आम्ही तुझा चि आधार । चालविसी भार सवे माझा ॥धॄ॥"

Gandhi's translation reads:

"Wherever I go, Thou art my companion. Having taken me by the hand Thou movest me.
I go alone depending solely on Thee. Thou bearest too my burdens."

Tukaram.com also has its translation in Rajasthani:

"हूं जठै-जठै जाऊं हूं बैठे-बैठे तूं म्हारे सागै चाले है और म्हारो हात झालनै मनै चलावै है ।

मारग में चालूं जणै मनै थोरा ई सायरो रैवै है, म्हारो सगळो भार तूं ई संभाळो है"

("म्हारो सगळो भार तूं ई संभाळो है". Sweeter than even Tukaram's original words! "चालविसी भार सवे माझा".)

The key phrase in the poem is 'to accompany'. "Taking by hand" is less important.

One of the greatest books, "Don Quixote", was written in Spanish c 1605-1615. Tukaram was already borne and perhaps writing.

Terry Castle informs that there is a phrase "...used in Spain to console someone: "Te acompaño en tu pesar"—"I accompany you in your sorrow.""

Castle continues:"...At the deepest level Don Quixote is about accompanying someone and being accompanied in turn..."

For me the most moving sequence of Richard Attenborough's Gandhi is the Dandi March. The way the March gathered strength. People kept joining in. In total silence.

They were accompanying and being accompanied in turn!

Last year, for the first time, I read D B Mokashi's (दि. बा. मोकाशी)- 20th century Marathi's foremost existentialist- Palkhi 1964 (पालखी). What a read! It describes how such an exercise transforms even a skeptic. Outsider in the end belongs.

Yesterday I finished reading Cormac Mccarthy's masterly and numbing 'The Road'. In apocalyptic times, father and son come closer. Thanks to a journey together.


Artist: Vijay Wadekar

To view more such pictures click here.