Nature Poem by Al Mahmud

How far Man has advanced!
Hypnotised by ceaseless shower
I am sitting on my own heels
even today.

While planting the tender paddy seedlings
into the soil, thick and soft like khir, I thought
the soil to be my beloved wife who
like a piece of boggy land, uncovers all her fertility
with her pleasant watery shyness.

Fields getting wet in rain.
I feel a hand soaked in water on my back.
And losing all the feeling-marks of sense
I've made my benumbed sight remain vigilant.

All day long it rains incessantly everywhere
like the spell of khana. Silently I observe
the water-snakes running after fishes
fleeing away beside the edge of fields;
the green grasshoppers leaping in fright on my
arms.

It seems that the graph of fields tied with ridges
having the touch of rain's fog has changed
suddenly
in trance of my dreams by an unbelievable magicspell;
and the beautiful earth has been divided
in the shape of a triangle.
From that geometry
the flocks of fishes, birds, animals and human
beings
come out successively
and surrounding my sensation, start eating
picking up the contradictory foods.

[Translated by Sayeed Abubakar]

Translator's Not: Khir:. Porridge-like food, sweet and tasty. Khana: Astrological predictions.