I had read "Forest and River" (english translation) long time back, during my graduation days - I dont even recollect the exact occasion. But I somehow lost track of it and could not lay my hands on this beautiful poem by Jalal-ad-Din Rumi, despite hours and hours spent googling it many late nights. So my joy knew no bounds, when by sheer chance, peering through the pages of an English textbook of a cousin, I came across this poem right in the midst of AK Ramanujam, Edgar Allan Poe and Nissim Ezekiel!
"I wish I were like you,"
Said the forest
to the roaring river,
"Always travelling,
always sightseeing;
Rushing towards the pure domain
of the sea,
The kingdom of water;
Water,
The passionate, vigorous spirit
of life,
The liquid turquoise of light
With eternal flow…
“But what am I?
Only a captive,
Chained to the earth.
In silence I grow old
In silence I wither and die,
And before long
nothing will remain of me
But a handful of ashes.”
“O forest, half-asleep, half-awake”,
Cried the river,
“I wish I were you,
Enjoying a seclusion
of living emerald,
And illuminated by moonlit nights;
Being a mirror
reflecting the beauties of Spring;
A shaded rendezvous for lovers.
“Your destiny, a new life
every year;
My life, running away from myself
all the time;
Running, running, running
in bewilderment;
And what is my gain
Of all this meaningless journey?
Ah…never having a moment of calm
and rest!”
No one can ever know
what the other feels;
Who does care to ask
about a passer-by
If he really existed
or was only a shadow?
Now a passer-by
Aimlessly walking in the shade
comes to ask himself,
“Who am I? a river? a forest?
Or both?
River and forest?
River and forest!”
- Translated by Zhaleh Esfahani
