Spring

(Translated from Kashmiri poem 'Sonth' written by Arjun Dev Mahjoor)

Poem

Splashing colours on tress, spring dawned

Bestowing fragrance on every bough

Throwing open their doors, greeting homes

Flowering the blossoms, spring dawned

Kissing the gardens, healing scars

Awakening the one in deep slumber

Warming the bosom of Mount Panchal 

Flowering the blossoms, spring dawned

Unfolding the petals of narcissus

Feasting upon the dewed violets

Lending melody to the song birds

Flowering the blossoms, spring dawned

Summary: The poem 'Spring' is translation of a Kashmiri poem, 'Sonth' translated by Arjun Dev Mahjoor. Sonth in kashmiri means spring season.

The spring registers its arrival by giving colour to trees and spreading fragrance allover. With its fragrance and green colour spring enters every home, plant, blossoms, in all. 

The gardens come alive by spring, brown fields and patches turn into green as if burning scars are healed. The sparrows by singing songs awaken the ones until now in deep slumber. The Mount Panchal until now shivering due to chilling breeze and snow enjoys the warmth in spring. The petals of flowers like daffodils with dew drops seems feeding on them. Spring gives melody to the songs of birds too.

Glossary

Word	Meaning	Urdu Meaning
Splash	To spread or scattere	چهڑکنا
Bestow	Confer or present a gift
Bough	The branch of a tree	شاخ
Blossom	The state of bearing flowers	پھول کھلنا
Kiss	To touch gently	بوسہ دینا
Slumber	Lethargy, dormant or latent	گہری نیند
Panchal	Mountains of Pir Panchal Range of Kashmir	پیر پنچال پہاڑی سلسلہ
Petals	Each of the segments of the corolla of a flower, usually coloured
Feast upon	To enjoy some unusual pleasure	لطف اُٹھان

Working with the text

1. How does the poet describe the arrival of the spring in the first stanza?

Answer:  The poet describes the arrival of the spring in the first stanza as - The spring dawns by splashing colour on trees, bestowing fragrance to branches and flowreing blossoms.

2. What does the poet mean by 'awakening the ones in deep slumber'?

Answer: The poet uses metaphor here, the dormant trees are described as in slumber which wakeup on the arrival of spring. 

Or

The poet means to say that spring is full of life. Every one till now in deep slumber is awaken by spring.

3. What do the flowers and birds do when the spring arrives?

Answer: Flowers get colour and spread fragrance all around whereas the birds get melody and they start to sung melodious songs when the spring dawns.

Poetic Devices

While reading a poem, we may visualise things or hear sounds in our mind. The usage of words by the poet to create the visual  representation of ideas in our mind is called imagery. The representation could be pictorial (visual), sound-based (audio), smell based (olfactory)or touch-based (tactile).

For example:

trees splashed with colour is visual imagery while as fragrant bough is an olfactory imagery.

Here are some more examples of imagery. Categories them into Visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile.

- kissing the gardens

- dewed violets

- smell of wet soil after the rain

- daffodils dancing in the breeze

- a gentle pat on the back

- the chirping of birds early in the morning

Answers:

- kissing the gardens (tactile)

- dewed violets (visual)

- smell of wet soil after the rain (olfactory)

- daffodils dancing in the breeze (visual)

- a gentle pat on the back (tactile)

- the chirping of birds early in the morning (auditory)