The Child Laborer
by
Barnali Saha
He wakes up in one early morn
And wipes his dry eyes of fatigue
The stinky bin stands beside him
Scrapes of paper and unadulterated dreams mingle
A mystic odor lulls a honeyed charm
He looks at the vast sky above
Thousand lights dancing in delight
And thinks of the day he had passed
One grimy hand, one heart full of rust
His hungry stomach aches in pain
Poverty runs down his deep gray vein
The stale bread in one street corner he ate
While uncouth smiles mocked at his fate
He is cold in his thread bare shirt
His limbs curl up in the in the dust and dirt
The heavy load of bricks awaits his arrival
One prized reward of a biscuit looks for him
The world rotates eternally in glee
Never pauses a second to see
That unfortunate kid on that one corner laying
His thirst for unquenchable love crying
Yet he is happy in his hapless sphere
He adorns his dusty smile in that moment of fear
Undaunted courage rises in his bosom
As new aspirations in his little heart blossom
Flocculent phantasms of that bright new morrow
When there will be no bricks and no cumbersome sorrow
The furrows of his baby face glisten with perspiration
The heavy load often bends his body but he is brave
For he knows one life lies ahead
A thousand miles to walk before he rests in his grave
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem