Having
reckoned things on my five fingers I showed
them many thing ;
To
a child I said five elephants,
To
a young girl I said five ants,
To
a grocer named Saifuddin I said five takas,
In
may youth I talked of five youths,
Thus
having left the impression of five fingers,
I
drifted far away in course of time.
I
don’t believe I had lived here even if it’s asserted
five times,
I’m
a little lazy y’know.
If
I had not
seen the impression of five fingers,
I
would have rejected your absurd proposal.
I
would have said I am a stranger from afar,
Who
spread this lie that I lived here,
Or
that I escaped having broken the fence.
But
the impression of five fingers suddenly sprang up
like a leopard,
I
remembered I too wanted with my defeatist mind
To
build castle in the air and live there happily
Far
away in the queue of the poor emperors of
the world.
But
I got arrested ; The news of my arrest along with
My
photograph by now is on its way to a modern
printing house,
A
talkative reporter’s scoop is going to sell hotcakes
To-morrow
; a fugitive has been arrested, has really
been taken to custody in this city.
Translated by
M. Harunur Rashid
Sayeed
Atiqullah
(1933--)