Hold Me Not.

Gurdip Singh

Don’t leave, cried the village
shouted at me the big tree
in the chaupal, The big gate on the entrance
and the pond at the back of the village
The Old well cried. The dry soil
was moist again, so sad were the crops.
Don’t leave, that was all they wanted
to say. They seem to cry, but leave I must

Sooner or later, I’ve fought a battle within.

So I will leave, I said.

We belong to you, they said, don’t go.

You belong to us, they said, don’t go.

We all belong to each other, don’t go.

But I care not little, you cannot change
me, so be off with you. I turned down
I want to shout at them, don’t stop me.

I want to shout at the deserted temple

Deserted as it stand with the deity alone,

in the  Deserted village.

Don’t hold me back, you have already

Deserted me and my aspirations

Just loosen your hold of me and let me go.

Don’t let me hold back my dreams and

Desires, my ambition and destiny

I’ve sown myself in the fields where

Nothing except thorns and thistles
has grown into bristles of thorny cactus
which bear no flowers.

Let me go, my village & my farms
and fields and plowed lands

Let me go to the distant places
where I want to try all my dreams
all my desires and all my aspirations;

Let me go. Let me go. Let me go to grow
don’t call me back. Don’t hold me any more.