Boat Life /ABU KARIM

When the first lily of youth was blooming

a gypsy girl stirred you in the root.

After that in every flood, in every drought,

a boat keeps awake in your memory.

You have no family, no cultivation, nor cattle;

a consummate boat life leads you to

foamy current of boundless waters.

Having a tiger skin as your guise, in the

midst of human noise you feel as if in exile.

From the clusters of your curly hair

to the tip of your toes, looking up in the

sky of floating clouds, or at night in the

sky of seven figures, you find your eyes

filled with tears.

Out of the icicle of your tears

there appear yellow breasted singing birds.

Innumerable birds of sorrow fly around you;

you have a consummate boat life.

March 28, 1975

"নৌকোজীবন"    কবিতার   অনুবাদ    ।

[ Translated by: Dulal Al Monsur]