How rarely these few years (Seth)
21 October 2007
How rarely these few years, as work keeps us aloof,
Or fares, or one thing or another,
Have we had days to spend under our parents’ roof:
Myself, my sister, and my brother.
All five of us will die; to reckon from the past
This flesh and blood is unforgiving.
What’s hard is that just one of us will be the last
To bear it all and go on living
Vikram Seth
All My Posts, Arts & Culture, Poetry, Random musings, South Asian Literature, World Literature, World Writers
I love your collection of poems. Life is indeed most difficult for those who have to live through the deaths of so many.
nice,
bitter reality in the form of delicate poetry.
Bikharnay ko hai alam-e-rung-o-bu
tum kidher jao gi, hum kidher jaiN gay
kitni dilkush ho tum, kitna dil ju hooN maiN
kya sitam hai ke hum donoN mer jaiN gay.
Jon Alya
Perfectly true and even more poignant since I am a parent of grown children
Ah, such is life.
Ya Haqq!
I am the fifth and youngest one in my family. It has always been my horror that I might be “the last man standing”.
I never thought to say this, but Seth is pithy.
Aa Adam`
gia tuj goh naseeb
ekh Pharista-e-Maut
dam nikaltey
Ya Rabb
hum goh Insaan banadey
Naam-e-Elahii lab beh
-just asking my Rabb to make me an insaan in this life.
Ya´Rabb make all beleivers get the Book of Deeds in the Right hand. Ameen.
Adam: thanks for the comment and also the lines