An Elegy Of A Sinking Boat Poem by Muhammad Shanazar

Bankless are the spaces,
Winds are harsh,
As if portend some storm,
Or thunder and lightning;
A bomb has exploded
In a car that has just passed
In front of me, smoke
Wraps from all sides around,
It seems as if
The burning sky is shatters it shards.

An anonymous child
Sits beside an unidentified corpse,
His wide open eyes give expression
To an unknown horror.
They don’t have tears, but a dark blankness,
Clouds thunder, rain may pour down
And dissipate smell of explosives.

Uproar of the people is increasing,
Police van has reached at the spot,
Blood splattered
On the road has begun to coagulate.
Perhaps a mark of blood on the black road
Is an identity of the innocent.
Rainwater will wash the road erasing
Even the last smudges of his virtuousness.

All atmospheres is gloomy,
Only smiles there a poster of cinema,
And the child has shrunk in its shadow,
Turmoil has increased in the flowing river,
The sails of boat have torn to pieces,
The blast has broken the boats
They are now sinking down,
By and by silences prevail, and helpless
Innocence of that child laments
On the sinking boats.

Written by Jagdish Prakash
Translated by Muhammad Shanazar