HOUSE BY THE MILL

A woman addresses the nation,
What big ears she
Has. The fabulous Red Riding-Hoods
In gladed wood
Burn flare-ups, but freedom's too prudent
To risk its skin.
O house by the mill we're trapped in.
 
 

BHOJPURI DESCANT

I
Piss after dinner,
Sleep on your left side:
You'll never fall sick.

II
If landlords are saints,
Pestles are bowstrings.

III
Witty landlords,
Wheezy thieves:
Lynch them.

IV
A servant who knows
The secrets of the house,
A pretty wife,
Spetched clothes,
A wicked king:
They need careful handling.

V
A shoe that pinches,
A sharp-tongued wife,
The first-born a daughter
An unproductive farm,
A duncish brother:
They cause endless grief.

VI
A brown she-elephant,
A bald wife,
Rain in winter:
Signs of luck.

VII
Three oxen, two wives:
Death's at your doorstep.

VIII
A spendthrift son,
A cross-eyed buffalo,
A moody ox:
Get rid of them at once.

IX
An ox with six teeth
Will quickly change hands,
An ox with seven
Will butt its owner,
An ox with nine
Will rush in nine directions
And won't spare even the family priest.

X
To inspect the teeth
Of a skewbald ox
Is a waste of time.

XI
The thin-tailed ox
With reindeer's piss
Brings prosperity.

XII
The blue-flanked ox
With purple horns
Can't be wrong.

XIII
One plough is death,
Two's survival,
Three's good business,
Four's a kingdom.

XIV
A wise farmer does his own tilling,
The one less wise walks beside his team,
But the farmer who goes looking for tillmen
Forfeits his seed.

XV
A small ploughshare
Tickles the field.

XVI
A kite's screech from atop a ruin:
Sign of rain.

XVII
A chameleon
Scrambles up the bole
Tail-first:
Expect a flood.

XVIII
Clouds throughout the day,
A clear sky at night:
Famine.

XIX
The clouds from the west are misers.

(After Ghagha)