The Literary Review

Sitting hunched at the hearth

of useful knowledge

she toasted her ashen eyes

through the gaps of her fingers

and very often said

You are my unique achievements

of my sacrifice

for long ten months and ten days

By birth you’ve got a beautiful earth

besides the vast  sky

So you must be generous like the sun

and tolerant like the earth

At my birth I cried

Maybe I got the pains of my mother

Since then I have had tears in my eyes

in happiness and sorrow of people

One can’t help crying

whose only companion at birth was tears

That honeyed word ‘Maa’

was my first honeyed word

Since then I’ve blurted out ‘Maa’

unawares

whenever I sit down or stand up

My birth is my mother’s sacrifice

I must be made for sacrifice

An ingrate I can’t be

My happiness lies in my mother’s happiness

My sorrow lies in my mother’s sorrow

Never can I be happy 

He is the lone custodian of happiness

whose main assets are

the sun and the earth