Tanabata-W
Look at the 1st quarter moon of the 7th
Day of the 7th month in the naked sky.
There! The two stars Vega and Altair
Blinded by love like Yaksha & his beloved
In the Bard Kalidas’s epic poem Meghdootam.
Vega neglecting her weaving and
Altair allowed the cows to stray.
So did lovelorn Yaksha in his duties to Kubera.
Dereliction in each case infuriated the kings.
Vega and Altair separated by the Milky Way
And Yaksha from Alkapuri in the Himalayas to Ramgiri.
Yaksha expurgated by separation for a year.
Vega succeeded in arousing the sympathy
Was allowed to meet Altair once in a year
Provided no rain on the eve of seventh
To unite in the milky way-Scorpion region
On the bank of Amanogawa river.
Prospero proved wiser expiating Ferdinand
By his log bearing as ‘trials of thy love’.
Reducing Miranda as ‘rich gift’ or ‘acquisition’
Forever as compensation to Ferdinand’s pains?
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Sixth Placement
For contest : your best poem
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Explanations of foreign words in the poem:
Japanese “Tana” means a shelf in English and “bata” is a transformation of “hata” which
means a loom
"weaving with the loom (bata) placed on the shelf (tana)",
One popular Tanabata custom is to write one's wishes on a piece of paper, and hang that
piece of paper on a specially erected bamboo tree, in the hope that the wishes become true.
According to a Chinese legend, the two stars Altair and Vega,
Yakshas : name of the Kubera’s servant
Meghdootam: Megh (rainy clouds and Dootam means messenger)An epic poem written in
Sanskrit in the year 400 A.D. by the great Indian Bard Kalidas – meaning cloud messenger
Ramgiri ; a hill near Nagpur in Central India
Alka: the name of the city in Himalayan region also known as Alkapuri
Kubera: the God of Wealth in the Hindu mythology
the Amanogawa (River of Heaven),
Prospero, Ferdinand and Miranda- the character in Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
Copyright © Dr.Ram Mehta | Year Posted 2010
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