11 February 2019

Here is a woman's perspective of Nissim Ezekiel's poem, Poet, Lover, Birdwatcher. The idea took root in me thanks to a stimulating question being raised by one of my most gifted teachers.

You can read the original poem here: (https://www.google.co.in/amp/s/m.poemhunter.com/poem-amp/poet-lover-birdwatcher/).
The transposition of the female voice was roughly done one night, when inspiration suddenly struck, and is presented here in all humility (changes italicized) :

To follow the pace and always to be still
Is not the way of those who study animals
Or men. The best poets don't mince words.
The hunt is an exercise of will
Not patient love relaxing on a hill
To note the movement of a frantic tail ;
Until the one who knows that he is loved
No longer dominates but risks surrendering -
In this the poet finds her moral proved,
Who never spoke before her spirit moved.

The quick movement, seems, somehow to say much more.
To watch the rarer birds, you have to go
Along deserted lanes and where the rivers flow
In silence near the source, or by a shore
Remote and thorny like the heart's dark floor.
And there the men slowly come around,
Not only brain and brawn but myths of light
With darkness at the core, and sense is found
By poets lost in crooked, resilient flight,
The deaf can hear, the blind recover sight.

Do let me know your thoughts.