O Singer of An Epic

O Singer of a chequered history, Of brazen battlefields bleak, desolate, Of life and liberties and tales hoary, O of Song Celestial, ageless glory. Thou hast outlived thy epochal story, With dead heroes surviving still in state, Frustrated for what happened, scarce sorry, O Singer of legends of history. One brother’s dharma and one’s archery, One’s brute power, someone’s oath and bravery That can’t be confined to an ancient date, O thou that sang legends’ ageless glory. Ye O bard two roles in one well carry: Poet laureate, progenitor of fate, Born of moment’s passion on boat-ferry, O Singer of epic war’s history. Ye sang thy song in such a swell flurry, Even God of Letters so adequate Had oft to ponder feeling nigh weary, O Bard of an ancient ageless glory. For mortal pens a task was it dreary— To understand it well before pen it, O Singer of a chequered history, O Singer of ancient ageless glory. ___________________________________ Vyasa is the creator and one of the key characters of Mahabharata, world’s longest epic of hundred thousand verses (each a quatrain). While doing translation of this epic based on some 2000 verses in three volumes, I was fascinated by this character. This Villanelle addressed to him uses stanzas of four lines instead of the usual three. Villanelle | 07.03.2022 |