Sunday, June 12, 2022

Indian Literature in Translation: What I Learnt Translating Shahryar's Poetry - The Quint - Translation

Among those who crossed over

One among those who watch from the shore

I too used to be fearful of the river

There were many of us in that paper boat

I was the only one who crossed over

***

The habit of living

There is no one to come and meet me

Then why do I have the name plate on my door

When you get the habit of living

It is hard to let go

***

The fear of morning

There is nothing new about the falling of night

And that is why I am fearful

The morning that will follow

Does not include the night

That I know

***

The pleasure of wakefulness

My lips upon yours

Weighing your body

In the scales of my hands

And the smell of gunpowder in the domes till afar

After a long time I savoured the pleasure of wakefulness

***

You will be punished

You have sold the ink of the night

To the morning

You will be punished some day

For the devastation you have wrought

***

Sorrowful since the morning

Night shall halt in the middle of the wind tonight

The thought that I will not be able to

Light the lamp of my dreams

Causes a frenzy inside me

And has made me sorrowful since the morning

***

Do you remember any of it

The routes I took to reach your body

The sound of earth and the scent of wheat

I brought with me

Do you remember any of it

***

It rained for a long time

In the evening, behind the fig leaves

A bare-foot whisper

Ran so swiftly

It nearly suffocated me

I yearned for a drink that tasted of sand

There in the distance a storm brewed

And then it rained for a long time

***

I am scared

I am scared

I am scared of those moments

Those moments yet to come

That will search

With great freedom

Every corner of my heart

For those dreams, and those secrets

That I have kept hidden from this world

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