Sanaul Huq Khan

 

Baptismal Dust

 

 

How long more will you tell him : “Go away !”

He can bestow no other blessing

Wherever there is the sign of words

there lies his love,

his magic rise from abysmal fall,

his all-sweeping dark waves.

All across his palm stretch

endless lives of scalded moonlight,

and from his lips emanate

                  endless dream words

like fragrant rose water.

How long more will you tell him  ; “Go away !”

He wants to capture the renascence,

the well’s bottomless depth,

the marriage bliss of words.

He wants to capture

                Poetry’s stone splitting smiling face !

He can bestow no other blessing.

Let his gracious night of merit descend

                                 on the baptismal dust.

Let civilization’s pure bright effulgence

                                     come trailing that descent.

Oh, how long more will you tell him ;

                                                     “Go away !”

 

                               Translated by Kabir Choudhury

 

 

 

Sanaul Huq Khan (1947-) Poet. Poetry : Andha Karotali (1980), Janmagrahan Chandragrahan (1984), Duksa Noy Dirgh Parinam (1985), Lubdha Prarthna (1986), Tomar Niyam Amar Niyati (1997).