Dear One Absent This Long While By Lisa Olstein In Hindi/Urdu Translation Poem by Ravi Kopra

basaat hi barsaat, dal-dal main pathar chamak rahay hain
phool khiltay hi gham main rehtay hain

main intazaar tera karti hoon. ek raat laga k tum aaey
drive ki bunyaadi pe khaDay thay, seeDioN tak a chukay thay

tum jhul-mul roshni main thay, lakin har baar
hawaa main pattay jhul-jhala rahay thay

subah ki roshni main lomDi ki parcHaaee door ho rahi thee
billi aur main, neelay parinday aur mmain, aur stove
tumharay intzaar main thay

-to be continued




Dear One Absent This Long While
BY LISA OLSTEIN

It has been so wet stones glaze in moss;
everything blooms coldly.

I expect you. I thought one night it was you
at the base of the drive, you at the foot of the stairs,

you in a shiver of light, but each time
leaves in wind revealed themselves,

the retreating shadow of a fox, daybreak.
We expect you, cat and I, bluebirds and I, the stove.

In May we dreamed of wreaths burning on bonfires
over which young men and women leapt.

June efforts quietly.
I've planted vegetables along each garden wall

so even if spring continues to disappoint
we can say at least the lettuce loved the rain.

I have new gloves and a new hoe.
I practice eulogies. He was a hawk

with white feathered legs. She had the quiet ribs
of a salamander crossing the old pony post road.

Yours is the name the leaves chatter
at the edge of the unrabbited woods.