To The Banyan Tree Poem by Muhammad Shanazar

“Oh! Overshadowing, evergreen Banyan,
Where have gone my vivacious playmates,
Who climbed up your reverend shoulders,
Clambered down by lowering, lurking roots?
And while playing they the run-and-catch,
Did hide themselves in the leafy boughs,
Mimicked the cuckoo in voice and tone.”

“Oh! Where have gone the contestants?
Playing cards sitting in the circles,
Patting hard upon the cards thrown,
Challenged with hope to win the game,
Pleasure they had, is unknown to the kings,
On the conquest of the distant continent,
Possessing oil-fields, fertile watery plains.”

“Oh! Where have gone the colourful damsels,
That swung ere the moon-soon winds blew,
Behind their necks fluttering Anchals1 flew,
Like the wings of hovering butterflies?
My eyes moved with the oscillating sight,
Now dashing down, now rising to the height;
With wonder I stood aside to understand,
They were nymphs or the earth pertained? ”

“Oh! Your pensive thoughts have maddened me,
Why they broke the bonds, confounds me,
That ten-generation devotedly strengthened.
Though white blood runs into my old veins,
And do not have the human breathing heart,
Yet I weep and miss them more and more,
The tickling tiny feet might have grown old,
Or they might have cherished love for gold,
Or might have they found the cooler shades.”

“Since long no one plays the run-and-catch,
No one titillates my crude hard shoulders,
No longer I hear laughter of the real conquest.
No colourful damsel plies with my aged arms,
No ploughman comes staggering to have rest,
Snorts deep while the wind blows to the West.”