HELAL HAFIZ[1]
Peddler
Sufferings needed? Sufferings!
Various types of sufferings
Sufferings needed? Sufferings
Red distress, blue agony, bright yellow coloured pains
Pallid pain of green grass pressed by stone
Dark ache of light
I’ve multi-coloured anguish
Sufferings needed? Sufferings
Sufferings of the house, of the alien, of birds and of leaves
Pain of chin
Pains of eyes, of bosom, of nails
I’ve sufferings of a man who get lost gradually
Sufferings needed? Sufferings
Pain of love, of hatred, of rivers and pains of the damsel
Severe pain of neglect and of humiliation
Sufferings of loving an immoral woman
Of gatherings of corrupt leader
I’ve sufferings of devastation by hydrogen
Sufferings needed? Sufferings
Sufferings of the daytime, pains of night
Pains of path of feet
Immense pathetic sufferings, sufferings of the hawkers
Sufferings needed? Sufferings
Nobody ever give you except me
Real artistic suffering
The lifelong sufferings of someone else
Who ever have destroyed everything
Like me?
Who ever can offer healthy agony except me?
I Wished
I desired I’ll make you empress and expand my empire
I wished I’ll make you the flag of happiness
And fly peace dove in my heart.
I wished like a dexterous makeup man
I’ll decorate the immense darkness with bright sunlight
I’ll make you play with the love of gallantry, Of I’ll make you play
I desired I’ll take out water drop by drop from the river
And place those on your timid lips
My lifelong cool eyes
Will radiate warmth on your eyes
I desired I’ll become king
Make you empress and expand my empire
Today I see there’s kingdom
There’s king too
There’s desire
But only you adore somebody’s house.
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Forbidden Editorial
Now is the period of youth, its unique time to go to the processions
Now who has the period of youth, its unique time to go to battle
All the hands of the procession
The voice
The feet are on the same.
There are family man, family denouncer
Some build family in the thoroughfare
Some to burn down the family or to make family havoc
Those who advocate peace too come to battle
Certainly they have to, sometimes
At the call of profound existence
Some turn into war-monger desiring gold and wealth
Some love necessitate lover to become an assassin.
If anybody want to become a killer
He turns out to be
The proper time in now goes by.
Now is the period of youth, its unique time to go to the processions
Now who has the period of youth, its unique time to go to battle.
[1] Helal Hafiz (b. 1942), first book of poems Je jwale Agun jwale’ was published in 1986. Award: Bangla Academy Award, 2014.