In Between Poem by Quazi Johirul Islam

Why have they captured me?
I couldn't realize that clearly
My hands are tied in back
Feet are tied too
They have blindfolded me with black cloth
People are howling all around
I could feel obnoxious smell in my nose
Are vultures flying? I could hear death
My skin is burning at heat of naked fire
Will they burn me to ashes?

The thin line amid life and death is being erased
Any moment they might throw me to open fire
While I am embracing the death,
I could remember the face of my beloved wife
‘Keep in mind, teach Agni guitar and Joal to sing.'
Brother and sister, my two beloved children,
They'll spread out my lyrics in the air.
And people will breathe in that lyrical air
And will become true lovers.

I hear a group of fierce black Africans
Are choiring and spitting on my body,
They have raised a slogan, ‘kill the bloody white dog,
Burn him, smash that white dog
of the United Nations.'
Should I laugh, while embracing
this disgraceful death?
Just couple of years ago, a German damsel
Did not shake my hand, as I was black,
What a pity, in West Africa,
Today I am facing death as I am a white!
I could never capitalize the benefits
of being in-between.

My body is being slashed up by the myriad boots
And beaten by wooden clubs
I can't scream any more,
My throat is dry, tongue is listless
The blood is oozing out of lacerated skin of my body
And drenching African soil.

I feel very sleepy now
Am I passing out to the dank darkness of death, then?
But my brain is alert yet,
I could clearly reflect about my colleague
Yirgalem Gebreselassie, whose three brothers
Sacrificed their lives for the liberation of Eritrea
Where is that girl now?
She was with me
Outside city, other side of the
lagoon, crossing the jungle
We went to a devastated village
To distribute foods to the hunger-stricken people.

Did the Militias murder her already?
Or pouring down virus of hate
on her body with frenzy?

They loaded my body on a vehicle,
It is an open Jeep
I could feel piercing pain
As the summer wind biting my lacerated body.
In about two hours

They've stopped the car in a solitary desert
Then they threw my body on the desert sand
Assuming I'm dead.
They unfastened all the straps of my hands and feet.

But my eyes are still blindfolded.

[Translated by Siddique Mahmud]