Shameen Azad
One Part Fruit
Rotten fruit
a house for worms
but how, all ears, I keep watch!
But how my hands rise irresistibly
like countless gas balloons,
my fingers spread their branches
in the sky.
As far as the eyes go, only burning hope
endlessly flowing
flies upwards,
its restless desire never dies
in the Seven-Seers’ light and in the incisive dark.
But still I walk so cheerfully
from one path to the next
and mumble to myself
that to make an offering of even this rotten fruit
will reveal in every bit its true identity.
Note: Saptarshi, or the Seven Seers, is the Bengali name for the constellation Ursa Major, or the Great Bear.
Translated by Syed Manzoorul IslamCarolyne Wright; Shameem Azad
Page(s) 55
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