Space Poem by swapna bhattacharya

Space
Syed Kawsar Jamal

It seems nothing can be held back now, nothing at all
As if darkness of the moment is stilled.
There stands the moon, holding light in its hand, like a book
flipping open its cover-page of clouds.
I have seen within rhymes the creeping body of lightning
The laughter of sheer prose,
flashing past the horizon like thunderbolts.
Did poetry show itself by making mysteries alit in the dark?
It seems there is nothing called inevitable
When the ocean turns violent, birds return to the shores
As for me, it is its sob I hear in the dead leaves,
floating like my life's own tales from the pages of an elegy,
I wander about some symbols, grief-struck,
As the festival gaiety heightens, it is you alone it grasps.
All night long play music and songs.
But at midnight, traversing light and darkness, tears and frost
comes desolate loneliness and grips.
Do you really believe that, in between, there is no other space?
The broken reeds of the piano gradually get vibrant again...

(Translated from Bengali by Basant Rungta)