My Dream Poem by Sikander Abu Zafar

Earth, O earth,
Would you remember me
When many many years had rolled by?
When your dilapidated cottages
Would be freshly thatched
And no rains would stream down
Their gaping holes any more,
And the inmates of your home would sleep in peace
On cool mats spread on the dry floor- -
Would you, in the quiet hour of such a happy night
Remember me?
Would you remember that as I lay in my crumbling room
And wasted away in consumptive fever
I used to dream all the time of such an hour as this?

[Translated by Kabir Chowdhury]