MATIN BAIRAGI[1]
In Uncertain Future
… And then sound of falling and breaking down all around
I thought and I was at a loss at the shattering of the hill
All the energy is exhausted, light is wiping out
I am standing like a tree in a darkness,
Who can not stand erect at its own strength.
I seems that I have no memory, around me sharks are wading
The Time is approaching with its vulture-like beaks at the baffled people
The sky has stooped down on the heads. I wanted to peep through the doors of remembrance,
I wanted to recollect those days of history, the power of looking back, asexuality, Alzheimer’s are knocking my head.
My memories are clogged in the ruin scene of a city
Now I can not remember anything-
I only think the sky was not illuminated with moon,
the stars never lit up or no dawn is seen,
the winds never blew- flower never bloom
Only the birds flew dejectedly and shed snows and lost their target –
I looked before me and behind me, I saw no one
I only heard a moan. I felt the ocean is creeping towards the field
Hills are shattering down, and wild buffaloes are smashing
through emerald green cropland
I hear the people scream, but my eyes are trapped at a blank meadow, I couldn’t understand in future who will move
and reach the happy life crossing that vast field.
Travel 03
My mind is running fast to unknown destination
It will not stop once again
Traversing the sky and underworld jungle and moon
Will embalm with the pride of mud all over.
Went through a many places, many a country in the speed of light
Not stopping again once again
The hills or on the banks of the river
Flying alone unaided
Stares this way and that to the red end of the horizon
The more I tell him to stop, come down here
See the life, look life has stopped
Do not stretch your hands to that life
Then it stopped near a bird
Close to the forest, next to the tree, and stood at the courtyard
The moon started to shine whiter the sky turned flower-vase
The unfathomable night said, now move again.
Travel 05
I feel empty today
Every where the melody is heard,
Sun peeps through the cloud
The far away sky claps with exaltation-
Smiling, doe-like eyes, is cooking
In the kitchen, handling cooking wares before the hearth
My memories are moving astray
He who wanted to come, shall not come
The Tom-cat said with raising up his tail
The wind of Chaiti days drives away the dusts
I feel empty today, nobody smiles at me-
Nobody visits me, I don’t have to move around
The bird of the jungle is absent, the deer too have left it
The tigers howl in great din
Dearer person has become unknown
Is anybody whispering something: Its a laughter of hushed words
What are they speaking, who are nearing me, who is waking up
Who ever gazes at the open river- and the lake.
Illustration 2
Look at another illustration, look at it deeply
So many trees, a narrow path through them
And a host of people are standing that side of the path silently
I also painted their hands-faces-eyes
Against that look There are some smiling
So brightly eyed human beings,
looked, as if they haven’t seen them before, gazed astoundingly-
And thinks how many days have passed and how many are left.
After showing everything I said: Now tell me
I’ve painted everything- heads, faces, hands and legs,
what else I haven’t pained?
You said, Senses of those human beings are left behind.
I said, I don’t know the story of reviving the senses.
Illustration 4
You stood for some times before the last picture of this series
Then touched it with your finger, came near it and went afar
Narrowed your eyes and gazed at the painting intently and said
One single hand like a rubber rope, pale and thin
Moving through the lands, to other country
Its background has the evident of green, violet, yellow and red
The illumination is expressed in the strokes.
What is there in the illustration! Only a hand!
A said: dejection, only feelings of depression
Can make the people return to illumination.
You said nothing, and
Only gazed at the illustration a few more times.
[1] Matin Bairagi (b. 1946), first book of poems ‘ Bishonno Prohore Dswidhahin” was published in 1977