Shivering Sprouts Poem by Kushal Dutta

... So vitally alive

Like the sculptured foreplay
of an eager couple

Throbbing between moments in the wind

A fresh red sprout of a sapling Uri-ā m
at the water’s edge

At the roots of the sapling
where, from this side of the river
at a precise angle
you see that unearthly sight
from there till the middle of the river
a root slithers like a Dhunduli-phė ti*

Where, a while from now
a drenched maiden that came swimming
will trip and faint

After another while
at the root of the sapling Uri-ā m
the sculpture will be sculpted
till the sun drowns
through the horns of the homing buffaloes

Down the mustard fields
through reeds and sedges
down the thick woods
the wary eyes discern
the fresh red sprout
of the sapling Uri-ā m

On the other bank of the river
where the road diverges to the woods
the steadily closing lids of two eyes

Will throb between moments
till the buffalo bells recede into the distances
and merged with the silence
***
* Uri-ā m: bescoffia javanica
* Dhunduli-phė ti: Coelognathus radiata
(Translated from Assamese by Prof. Pradip Acharya)