Looking Back Poem by David McLansky
Looking Back
What was my gift
To advance the species?
Did I make it more secure;
Did some invention that I made
Open mysteries unexplored?
Did I ease the pain of an injured life
Unknown to me, a stranger;
Did I successfully take a wife,
Did I neutralize a danger?
Did I breed and educate
A future generation
Leave them free of neurotic strife
Did I make them man’s salvation?
Or has my life been one of crime
One of self indulgence,
A prepsychotics waste of time,
A self-absorbed effulgence?
I wish that I had done some good
Beyond day to day survival,
Did I build a house of stone, not wood,
Did I vanquish a hateful rival?
Looking back, I recognize
I did more harm than good,
I lived a life that I despise,
I little understood.
In Indian epic The Mahabharata. there is are two verses like the last stanza of this poem, Na krutham sukrutham / kinchit bahutwa dushkrutham krutham(Little goodness did I; if think, did ills a lot.) Na=no, krutham=did, sukrutham=goodness/ virtue, ; kinchit = if think, bahuthwa= a lot of, dushkritham= evils, You did pen well.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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5/6/2024 8:03:41 AM # 1.0.0.1119
The best days I have are the ones in which I can spend some time reading your words, and this is one of those days! Amazing how you say so much and more amazing is how you make me feel so much. xo