Abhanga 3480
Speech without genuine feeling behind it stays dry and hollow, no matter how much noise it makes.
The verse
जाणिवेच्या भारें चेंपला उर । सदा बुरबुर सरे चि ना ॥१॥
किती याचें ऐकों कानीं । मारिलें घाणीं नाळकरी ॥ध्रु.॥
मिठेंविण आळणी बोल । कोरडी फोल घसघस ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे डेंगा न कळे हित । किती फजित करूं तरी ॥३॥
Literal translation
Jāṇīvā-bhāra-presses-ura — burbur-never-stops. How-much-to-hear — pressed-in-oil-mill. Without-miṭha bōla-insipid — kōraḍī-fōla-ghasa-ghasa. Tukā: ḍēngā-doesn't-recognize-hita — how-much-fajita.
What it means
A sharp 3-verse anti-pretender text. Self-importance-burden presses the chest; their constant-murmur — they're trapped in their own oil-mill; their speech without salt is dry-hollow-rasping; the dim-wit doesn't even recognize his own good.
For someone today
Tukaram takes aim at people weighed down by their own sense of importance, whose chests feel pressed tight by it, and who never stop their constant murmuring, like someone trapped grinding endlessly in their own oil mill. Their words, lacking any real salt of genuine feeling, come out dry, hollow, and grating to hear. He admits, with some frustration, that certain people simply do not recognize what is actually good for them no matter how often he points it out. It is a pointed warning about the difference between speech that carries real substance and speech that is just self-important noise.
मराठी: तुकाराम स्वतःच्या मोठेपणाच्या भाराने दबलेल्या लोकांवर टीका करतात, ज्यांची छाती त्या भाराने दाबलेली असते आणि ज्यांचे बडबडणे कधीच थांबत नाही, जणू ते स्वतःच्याच घाण्यात अडकून फिरत असतात. त्यांच्या शब्दांत खऱ्या भावाचे मीठ नसते, त्यामुळे ते कोरडे, पोकळ आणि कर्कश वाटतात. काही लोकांना कितीही सांगितले तरी त्यांचे स्वतःचे हित कळत नाही, याची तुकारामांना खंत वाटते. खरा अर्थ असलेले बोलणे आणि केवळ स्वतःच्या मोठेपणाचा गोंगाट यातला फरक हा अभंग स्पष्टपणे दाखवतो.
Where this applies
- Tukārām's jāṇīvā-burden; bōla-without-miṭha canonical anti-pretender
- miṭha image for the salt-of-bhāva in speech