दोन दिवस (कविता) Don Divas (Two Days) - a poem

कवी सांगतात की आयुष्यातले दोन दिवस वाट पाहण्यात गेले आणि दोन दुःखात गेले. रोजची भूक भागवण्यासाठी किती उन्हाळे अंगावर झेलले याचा हिशोब कवी करत बसतात. रोजची भाकरी मिळवण्याच्या धडपडीतच सगळे आयुष्य निघून गेले, हे कवी सांगतात.

At the very start the poet takes stock of his life. The line 'two days went in waiting, two in sorrow' shows how his entire existence was a struggle. He counts how many summers remain on his head, as if tallying his life itself. The daily fight just to earn bread, mere survival, consumed so much that his whole life was spent chasing it.

कवी म्हणतात, माझे हात हेच माझे सर्वस्व, पण तेही दारिद्र्यापुढे गहाण राहिले. कधी हात उंचावले, कधी कापले गेले असेही अनुभव आले. दुःखाच्या क्षणी डोळ्यांतले अश्रूच मित्र बनून मदतीला धावून आले, असे कवी सांगतात.

The poet says his hands were his only wealth, yet even they stayed mortgaged to poverty. Sometimes his head was held high, sometimes it was cut down, meaning he knew both honour and humiliation. He could not always hide his tears, but at times those very tears became a friend that rushed to his aid, offering comfort within the sorrow itself.

कवी सांगतात की त्यांनी नेहमी दुनियेचा विचार केला आणि स्वतःला जगाशी जोडून घेतले. दुःख कसे सोसावे आणि पुन्हा कसे जगावे हे त्यांनी याच जगरूपी शाळेत शिकले. लोखंड झोतभट्टीत तापवून पोलाद बनते, तसेच त्यांचे आयुष्यही कष्टांत तावूनसुलाखून घडले, आणि शेवटी पुन्हा तेच सांगतात की दोन दिवस वाट पाहण्यात गेले आणि दोन दुःखात गेले.

Towards the end the poet says he always thought of the wider world, making himself one with it. He learned in this school of the world how to bear sorrow and how to live again. Just as iron is heated in a furnace to become strong steel, his own life too was forged and tempered in hardship, he says. The poem closes by returning to its opening line, two days went in waiting, two in sorrow, completing a circle in the picture of his life.