Child Burial By Paula Meehan In Hindi/Urdu Translation Poem by Ravi Kopra

Teri shav-petika asli nahin lagi
ajeeb shaadi k cake si lagi.
Teri kabr k pakDay main ne soch k chunnay,
teri pasand ki dharidaar kameez, teri neeli pantloon
jo October ki jalti lakDi ki sugand se bhari theeN
jahaN teri bhi sugand aa rehi thee.
Tera swayter hathoN se buni oon ka chunna
garm aur mulayam teray liyay,
wahan neechay andheray main baDi thand hoti hai.

- to be continued

***

Your coffin looked unreal, fancy as a wedding cake
I chose your grave clothes with care, your favourite stripey shirt
your blue cotton trousers They smelt of woodsmoke, of October,
your own smell there too. I chose a gansy of handspun wool,
warm and fleecy for you. It is so cold down in the dark.
No light can reach you and teach you the paths of wild birds,
the names of the flowers the fishes, the creatures
Ignorant you must remain of the sun and its work,
my lamb, my calf, my eaglet my cub, my kid, my nestling
my suckling, my colt. I would spin time back, take you again
within my womb, your amniotic lair, and further spin you back
through nine waxing months to the split seeding moment
you chose to be made flesh, word within me.
I'd cancel the love feast the hot night of your making.
I would travel alone to a quiet mossy place,
you would spill from me into the earth drop by bright red drop.