Go, Give Them the News

Go, give them the news

tell them the water is knee deep now
they have to give the boats alone
the graveyards are to be dug up tomorrow
that should tell them all

Go, get the news across

take a lamp with you as you go
all lamps may have burnt out there
no oil may be, for the wicks which stand
all these belong to when the evening deepens

Go, get the news across

don’t you tell them though
that the men are all lost
that with the roads
the courtyards too is lost
don’t tell them of the firing at Kokrajhar
or of the homes and fields mortgaged

Go, tell them the news
know his walk well before you confide
hear his voice
measure his shadow if you can
with these ten these ten fingers

Go, get the news across

inform the police before you leave
rehearse before the mirror
what all you would say
give your address before you leave
so that town-folk get to know of you

Is it true really?
could be false
may not be
then it’s a fact
Yes, yes, it is
Go, give them the news

It’s true
it could
that’s right, it may not

             [ Translated by Pradip Acharya ]

 
When the night is mellow

When the night is mellow the stars
droop in their sleep. I go on like the
dazed boatman riding the currents
to the shores of dreams. On my side
are hundred thousand memorials of the
dead. The eye scorching ashes of books,
a mask within a mask, beneath it
the frozen ice like love, an unfinished
poem of the dead poet, the golden hued
teardrop of the tiger, the manners of a
foreign tongue and the shadow of a
butterfly that had flown. All of
these I wants to know and oneday
I had lost them all to forgetfulness
Who was it who wanted to be my awakening
dear like death yet heartless like the night.
I wasn’t told anything infact nothing.

             [ Translated by Baishali Baruah ]

 
I have been watching since a long time

I have been watching since a long time
the illusive Paraside that is not
that flash of lightning
the beginning the end and another beginning

There is no end no end no end

The day of birth, the earth and blood, the sight of
standing upright, the moment of falling in love,
the first kiss and the special day, the friendship
with death, the funeral pyre and the rains

There is no end no end no end

I have been watching since a long time
you within me and me within you
the seed within the seed and the nude world

             [ Translated by Baishali Baruah ]

 
One day I will return to where I belong

One day I will return to where I belong
That song that siesta that evening
Shall all perish in the river of Time

None shall know why sorrow is named so
Why babies weep and why women wipe tears
Why the Earth is so confoundedly cold

When the leaves fall the trees will forget themselves
This bird the butterfly this wind
Will remember you forever in the solitude

             [ Translated by Baishali Baruah ]

 
I wake up I sleep I return

I wake up I sleep I return
to myself again. Am I dream’s
fantastic creation? This invisible
to visible, visible to invisible, descent
from the ascent, a self within a
self and the void. This night
that saps the sun of my heart
What do I buy I buy Wish’s last wish
and a handful of ashes.
Can I find me, those like me, like you, like many others.

I wake up I sleep seduced by the endless day.

             [ Translated by Baishali Baruah ]