Ancient Bones

(Translated by Sonia Nishat Amin)

Beside the faded grass

Brittle shards of bone—yours, mine

Are strewn all around

The news has spread all over

On wisps of mist

Foreheads tatooed

We search each other's faces

Is there any room inside?

Are we alive and thriving?

Surreal shadows cloaked in mist

Have silently taken their places by our sides

A great carnival is about to commence

Our corpses will be dug up from their ancient graves

Yours? Mine? Whose skeleton walks about

In the tournament?

Let us gather around, then, 

In gleeful anticipation

Over here beside the gaping mounds of earth.

(From a forthcoming book that contains 34 random poems in Sonia Nishat Amin’s translation, from Rabindranath to Ruby Rahman. There are three from Sankhya Ghosh including “Baburer Prarthona”)