How rarely these few years (Seth)
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.
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
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






October 21st, 2007 at 7:48 pm
I love your collection of poems. Life is indeed most difficult for those who have to live through the deaths of so many.
October 22nd, 2007 at 1:29 am
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
October 22nd, 2007 at 3:14 am
Perfectly true and even more poignant since I am a parent of grown children
Ah, such is life.
Ya Haqq!
October 23rd, 2007 at 8:07 am
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.
November 8th, 2007 at 9:40 pm
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.
November 9th, 2007 at 2:13 am
Adam: thanks for the comment and also the lines