Of capturing life’s essence
02 Jun 2020 11:17:45
By Vijay Phanshikar :
What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
- “What is this life, if”
By William Henry Davies
Prose
Generations have grown up reading this poem -- and liking and loving it beyond words! The message has a divinely simple touch. For, it stems from a heart seeking bliss from simple things around offering sheerness of innocence -- of standing and staring at things that otherwise are so routine that they matter little, like passing sheep and cows, like squirrels hiding nuts in the grass, like streams aglow with daylight breaking into million pieces on the ripples and waves almost giving the impression of a starry night ...! A little child will identify herself very quickly with all these. She does not walk to school straight. She stops. She wanders from the path. She ducks under the boughs. She wets her feet in the streams.
She stands transfixed as the line of ants crosses her way. She stares at nothing in particular but sees the whole of the world in small nuances so easily -- as if all of that is her kin, her own very big family. The little one never gets late to school even though she finds time to stand and stare! She is never bored with the drudgery of life, and life offers her all excitement -- only because she has all the time in the world to stand and stare! That makes her life rich, and livable and lovable. But that’s generally when she is a little child -- full of wonderment about things around her.
With eyes wide open, with mouth gaping, with her brows arched in excitement, the little one looks at the world in full stare of her glare -- making her an authentic candidate of happiness. But that’s when she is little ...! ... Then she grows (but may not actually grow up). And she is quite likely to start ignoring things that once fascinated her as a child. To that so-called grown up, the poet asks, What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare ...!??? This simple question! -- Oh, the world has forgotten to answer. Alas!