Veda And Voyeur Poem by Aniruddha Pathak

‘Veda’ with ‘voyeur’— what vying image!
Siblings of a kind sharing same sireage1,
Veda, a blue eyed scion of Sanskrit,
Latin videre that from same root is lit,
Both meaning but the same: to see and know,
But parted soon a solo path to toe;
The word ere walked from Sanskrit to Latin,
And in course of time English let it in:
Wit, vision and video same root do share,
Though voyeur, off the kind, is quite a stare!

Wit and vision kept close to kindred root,
But voyeur turned to be an odd offshoot.
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Sireage1: Not a dictionary word, it is coined
from ‘to sire’. Veda in Sanskrit means to know.
The four Vedas are books of knowledge. The Latin
videre was derived from this.
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-The ways with words | 05.10.09 |