Where the voice of the wind calls our wandering feet,
Through echoing forest and echoing street,
With lutes in our hands ever-singing, we roam,
All men are our kindred, the world is our home.
Our lays are of cities whose lustre is shed,
The laughter and beauty of women long dead;
The sword of old battles, the crown of old kings,
And happy and simple and sorrowful things.
What hope shall we gather, what dreams shall we sow?
Where the wind calls our wandering footsteps we go.
No love bids us tarry, no joy bids us wait:
The voice of the wind is the voice of our fate.
Sarojini Naidu, the poet, freedom fighter and patriot was also known by the sobriquet The Nightingale of India. She was a sensitive poet and wrote poetry based on the beauty of simple joys and sorrows of life. Her poetry included children’s poems, nature poems, poems on love and death etc. Sarojini Naidu is a poet of Indian thought and culture and her poems described Indian flora and fauna, Indian customs and traditions, festivals, men, and women, places legends of kings and queens etc.
The poem “Wandering Singers” by Sarojini Naidu is about a band of folk singers who wander from town to town and from village to village to spread the message of love through their singing. They play the flute; a musical instrument as they roam from place to place. The voice of the wind symbolizes the welcoming tone of the song that echoes through the forests and streets. To the wandering singers, all mankind are like their extended family and the world is their home.
The theme of the songs that they sing goes back to stories of ancient battles or of old kings. They also have songs about the beauty of women and about happy and sad things.
The wandering singers have no dreams or hopes of their own; they go wherever the wind calls them. No love can make them go slow or no joy can make them wait. The voice of the wind is the voice of their life and also their destiny.
Courtesy: Beaming Notes, Cultural India
