A Monologue Of A Newly Born Discarded Child Poem by Muhammad Shanazar

“What is all this?
Everything seems strange, cold, cold,
My body is stiffened,
When my extremities move
It seems as if they are fastened with something,
Strange kind of smell is here.
Where have I come at?
That sensation of softness,
Where I float with my own accord,
A petty secure world,
How light and peaceful my body was,
Now it seems
As if I am sinking down and down,
How much stifling it is here.
What is piercing into my body?
Now I cannot get up too
My back aches.
What kind of strange walls are all around?
These swishy…hissing sounds,
What the ticking sound it is,
Noise sometime sharp and sometime low,
Torments my ears,
The drums of my ears seem to gash.
Where the soft sound has gone
That used to hum gently,
Talked to me…now wept then laughed,
Told me the tales,
I couldn’t understand
But the voices and words were soft,
I swayed as if I was in the cradle,
With a sound…there was
But rustle with softness,
Neither hunger nor thirst.
I recall my throat is dry for the long time,
I am feeling hungry and thirsty too,
I have been crying at the top of my voice
But that soft sound doesn’t respond,
I don’t know where it has gone away,
This sound of splashes,
These sounds… mews… growls…
What is this all?
Dim light is coming but where from,
Strange shadows are coming to me.
They are growling at one another,
I am scared,
It seems they all are to pounce on me
Where is that who had soft voice,
Why she doesn’t come to save me,
To get myself saved I move my hands and feet,
But something is wrapped around,
And my back is quite stuck
With the thing beneath,
Oof! So much pain…my arm…”

Written by Farheen Chaudhry
Translated by Muhammad Shanazar