In the mid-day of Chaitra, death comes to lie beside him
Keeping its head on the soft pillow
Listened every dialogue with absolute interest
Listened to the story of the path
Story of dreamy days of the poesy
Heard the verses of the poems,
glamour of simile and metaphor
And death returned again and again
What happened to it today!
Have to give indulgence
Like a beloved following the nurse with white apron
Walked through the deserted corridor one evening lonely
Went to Mohammadpur holding the hand of white apron
to see his study.
Whose shadow did he see inside the white apron?
To whom he shows the glow of the Intellectuals’ graves, yonder
Did the blessed son of poesy Abid Azad loved death
More than poetry secretly friendless?
In that mid-day of Chaitra, an unseen ray of light
Pierced through the eyes of poet Abid Azad
Aligned shadows walk through the corridor of Samorita Hospital;
Abid Azad sees the white apron flies
The future of poetry flies away, like white and black clouds
He sees the beaconing of the death
He also sees the highest seat of God
He sees the dust of the graves of the Intellectuals
He also sees the illuminations of the publication ceremony of the
book of poems ‘Written in the Hospital’.
He also sees the future of his offspring, faces of his friends.
In that mid-day of Chaitra, unobserved by everyone,
One Abid Azad prepares the commodities of death
Today after the day vanishes, the night descends
Abid sleeps alone, the night keeps awake
Today the seventieth decade kisses the grasses of the grave
Today Abid Azad kisses the grasses of the grave
Today Abid sleeps alone, the night keeps awake.
Chaitra : twelfth month of Bengali era; Mohammadpur: a residential area of Dhaka city; Samorita Hospital: a privately-owned hospital of Dhaka city
Translated by Siddique Mahmudur Rahman