With A Little Cash Poem by Hassanal Abdullah

If I have a little cash, I will open an art shop
My modernist call
Will raise echo and journey to
Corners of places not reached before.
Let few days pass by
If I have a little cash, I will wash your
Soft feet with spring water.

If I have some money I will buy the giant sky-

Wandering all day on its floor
Birds will wake me up
And they will again put me asleep easily.
The world will find my hands in its own
If the crooked line of restlessness
Is wiped away. With some money
I will spend my time listening to the bees.

Faraway conversations:
No longer talking from wire-to-wire
No more wasting of sinew.
Bangladesh, take note of it
I will rest my head upon your breast
And sleep all night in tranquility
When I have just a little cash.


Translated from the Bengali by Nazrul Islam Naz