When the chilly and shivering winds of your old age starts to blow,
When the sprightly and leaping spring of your vivacious youth ceases to flow,
When the midday sun of your enviable Beauty sets slowly to low,
When all the false, fleeting and fallacious flatterers quit you alone to go,
You will feel ruefully then the never fading beacon of my True Love still steadily glow!
Oh! When you bend down under the burdens of old age infirmities and remorse,
When you walk like a snail, leaning on a staff, O the bygone days' blooming Rose,
When you stand, like a stranded ship, on your solitary verandah to view the kids' plays and soars,
When you bless the newly married couples to begin in life a blissful course,
You will feel ruefully then that the never drying sky of my True Love still selflessly pours!
Oh! When you overhear every night your son solicit your daughter in law in vain,
"Please stop replying to your old chats, and resuming your new ones, for it's already four and ten!"
When she retorts rudely then, "Ah! I can no longer listen to your clichéd complaints again and again!"
You will feel ruefully then, "O that I, too, in my youth, had listened to my Yeats' advice to avoid my present pain!"
N.B. This poem is inspired by W.B Yeats' poem "WHEN YOU ARE OLD." addressed to Maud Gonne whom he loved but couldn't marry her, for she didn't accept his love till end. Copyright: Dr. Shankar D Mishra. 08.11.21
No comments:
Post a Comment