Numerous paths surge all around me,
everything in perpetual ecstatic motion,
and I wonder;
How easy it would have been to press on!
Had there been just one course of action!
Had everything else been stationary!
To start is easy;
Is it not?
But, to see the sojourn to its cusp?
Mettle stretched and wearied,
inflicts a grinding halt.
In that ephemeral jiff,
intervening desolation and tenacity,
we let slip from memory;
Why did we set out?
When impenetrable wilderness and soaring ranges
can no longer impede your resolve;
When you would have surmounted the crest;
When no distinction can be made between you and those humbled peaks;
When you will endure the first snow blizzard,
and not quiver;
the culmination will unfold upon you asudden;
Subjugating the cosmos,
and unyielding courage,
are one and the same.
This is an attempt to translate the poem titled “Antim Unchai” by Kunwar Narayan ji. I was reminded of this poem when I was climbing the Alps mountain in Innsbruck, Austria. I have attempted to put forth the poet’s ideas as per my interpretation.
यथा ह्येकेन चक्रेण न रथस्य गतिर्भवेत् । एवं पुरुषकारेण विना दैवं न सिध्यति ।। 