On Jimmy’s Death
Do you seriously think he was born to work ?
Yet he did work a lot
He ran his body ragged
He was the darling of the entire world
He was a marvellous conversationalist for lonely hearts
Work done, he would come running to the pub for a drink
He would trample his enemy, the world, under his feet and then sleep
He would say whatever came into his mind :
“If there were someone who could liberate me from work!”
His mates were well-to-do, scoundrels of the first water,
worldly-wise, mean.
They would exploit him as much as they could
And deliberately led him on to buy them roundsOne day when he was in a good mood, he said to me :
“If I were born over again and returned to this world
I would choose, well, to be a tree
I would mould the world with my own hands,
Roll it round, a bottle to be swigged when I felt like it
And I would speak my mind without inhibition.”[London, 9 August 1997]
[AM and the poet]
Translated by Amin MughalMahar Tirmazi
Page(s) 268
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