Afjal Chowdhury

 

A Voice

 

 

Amidst the rustle of late autumn’s

gray falling leaves

some one, it seemed, called out

from empty space, “Come here, O come here

                                              to me.”

All around lonely hazy emptiness quivered

a horse neighed sadly

and, in the distance, with a gust

of breathless wind

restless time rushed on.

There was no one on the road,

no road was there,

only fossil desolation stretched to the horizon.

He thought ; where would he go to

in this empty space ?

At whose doorstep would he take his stand ?

And yet some one went on calling

after him. ”come, come here, O come here

                                 to go.”

But it was he who was lonely,

loneliness reigned inside of him.

Alas, he called out only to himself

                              by different names.   

 

                                  Translated by Kabir Chowdhury

 

 

Afzal Chowdhury (1942- ?)

Poet. Poetry : Kalyan Brato (1969).