Coming Back / Abu Karim

No one else has seen you coming back.

None of all other watery things of Nature has seen

the lonely Kadom flower uncovering the veils one after another.

There was profuse downpour in the Shravon sky;

on the weeds of steps on the pond there was sleep;

and a bud of lotus shivered several times.

But none of them has seen you coming back.

The bud of lotus feels the depression of being unable to bloom.

Pangs of solitude dance with glaring eyes

in the midst of Shravon night pour.

After your coming back, leaving all the utensils

do the thorns of lotus appear on your arms

out of snake bite?

Or what’s that Shravon sky on your eye lash?

None knows them.

Your pangs known only to the perpetual living

attached to your body.

In solitude Shravon you stood in the door

Bowing your face low.

None in front of you then.

In front of me there shivered only solitude touching the horizon.

Dhaka: December 1974

[ Translated by Dulal Al Mansur ]