My Search Of You Poem by Suman Pokhrel

Tell me once
where are you?

Where are you who should be remembered
when your memory comes?
Where are you who should be touched
when I feel like touching you?
Where are you who should be loved
when I feel like loving you?

What should I do?
Should I build a temple of your soul
and stay there ringing prayer bell?
Should I build a monastery without shape
and sit there in meditation?
Should I build one invisible house of love
and lie in sleep inside?

I want to love the self
that you say is you.

If you are not the body
Why should I enrich scenes
before your eyes?
Why should I sweep away thorns
from the path where you walk?
Why should I always make things,
which you touch, tender?
Why should I block raucous sounds
coming to assail your ears?

Why should I spill aroma on flowers?
For whom should I fill my lips with taste?

I want to love you
coming out of this circuit of illusion
a false world that grows
by gloating with its own vanity.

I implore, make it clear to me
Just once—
Should you be only
mind, intellect, and soul
where should I go
if I wanted
to merge with you?

.....................................

(Translated from Nepali by Abhi Subedi)