Abu Bakar Siddique

  I am Care, I am Love

 

On my light of heaven,

Believe

I have no conventional effigy.

 

Oh fire of hell,

Believe

 

I have no specific festoon.

 

Oh Lord of Death, Yama,

Withdraw your warrant against me.

 

From my breast streams tenderness into the soft

                                                                       flesh.

 

With affectionate strength

I stretch the bow-string,

With a sharp twang I release the vibration of the love.

I am the elixir of joy in the marrow and brain,

I am the immortal guest in both halves of the world.

Life and death and the classic structure of man

Dance to my rhythm and rhyme.

I am the holy light and celestial inspiration through

                                                                the blue orbit.

 

During the ruthless Middle Ages

They tried me in the court of virtue and vice,

But now it is the time of immersion

                                         in the bosom of women

To the limits of every horizon.

Oh Priest,

Withdraw your warrant.

Where are the sick ?

I, care, shall go to their bed.

Where are the fallen ?

I, Love, shall go to their aid.

In other ages

All these glowing seeds sprang from the palms of

Buddha, Jesus and Mohammed.

 

In this age

All intimacies fade into the chocking fog.

Perhaps you will never know

How, by overcoming disease, and holes and obstacles

Along your path.

 

I come one silent dusk

And planted those luminous seeds

Under the alter in your courtyard.

I came and then passed away,

I am Care, I am love.

 

 

                 Translated by Peter Stuart Whisson  

 

 

Abu Bakar Sidique (1936--)

Poet, Novelist, Essayist and Story writer. Poetry : Dhabal Dhudher Swaragram (1967}, Binidra Kaler Vela (1976),  Novel : Jal Raksas (1985), Khoradaho (1987),  Stories : Bhumihin Desh (1985), Char Binashkal (1987).