Who has sent the old age? I thought youth was here to stay! <br />Even threshold seems a mountain now, <br />Even the village outskirts seem remote like foreign lands to me. <br />The hair on my body has irreversibly grayed <br />Even the small pail is now the mighty Ganga for me! <br />Who has sent the old age? I thought my youth was here to stay! <br /> <br />Nobody asked for it, then how did it come? I never looked forward to it! <br />At my house, I am humiliated, 'Shove his cot in corner’ they say. <br />You may love laddoos in childhood, but in your decline <br />You perpetually crave for rabdi and relish sev! <br />Such are the burning vices of the ripe old age! <br />Who has sent the old age? I thought my youth was here to stay! <br /> <br />In morning, hunger torments my life, <br />And they say, ‘Well, he is not dying. Why doesn't he sit in one place?’ <br />Who has sent the old age? I thought my youth was here to stay! <br /> <br />Many sons had I, today their wives are cursing me, <br />Sons-in-law have taken all of my daughters- see what is one’s plight in the old age! <br />Who has sent the old age? I thought youth was here to stay! <br /> <br />All of my nine nerves have now come away: my hour has finally arrived. <br />Women disparage me, children swear at me; such is the final moment! <br />My sons have at last arrived at the door: <br />Only to take the purse from my chest and go away! <br />Who has sent the old age? I thought my youth was here to stay! <br /> <br />How shameful is this old age! Hence, O cast away your vain pride! <br />Only because of pious ways, <br />Mehta Narsinh has made it beyond this world. <br />Who has sent the old age? I thought my youth was here to stay!<br /><br />Narsinh Mehta<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/who-has-sent-the-old-age/
