Other Shore & Reincarnation

(Translated by Fakrul Alam)

On the other shore of words

I’d like to crossover to the other shore of words

I find everything too meaningful, too true

All things marked are transformed into words

That scream out, sweep away and devastate entire families.

Where is that lake whose eternally still water

Won’t ripple even when a stone is thrown into it?

O mute one—Look alive!

Reincarnation

Snail, I keep following you steadfastly

See you crawl nonchalantly; calmly, contentedly

And try to hold your resolute gait in this body of mine.

Within your shell and beneath your princely crown

Lie hidden secrets of your gravitas, losses, likely death.

Treading on you soft snail feet, you wear yourself away

Carefully, I attempt to pick up your body’s wasted away bits

At journey’s end you lie bodily, freed of your indifferent shell     

Behold how I gather up all that you are to become your heir!

Fakrul Alam is a Bangladeshi academic, writer and translator.