Saying Something
by Mohan Rana
Is it right to say anything about myself?
Just this much is enough
I am a blue-eyed black bird
My wings hold all directions
My flight has touched the sky's hue
On my tiptoes I've glimpsed also the darkness beyond
I've pursued drying rivers and spreading deserts
Sometimes I've been scorched in burning forests
I've kissed anguish dissolving in the rain
I've seen a woman give birth on a tree besieged by flood
I've changed my body so many times
Yet I've remained a blue-eyed black bird.
People fleeing wars, hiding,
Climbing treacherous slopes, stop when they see me.
Think they would never be so high, so far,
even though I am so close, in their minds/hearts/souls
In the deep lines of their faces countries
are shattered and built
They buy new locks, new keys for their heavens
What did Boabdil think when handing Isabella
the keys of the Alhambra
Softly saying only, ‘Here, take heaven's keys'
This endless flight without night or day
Sometimes the sun both sets and rises
Longitude is locked in my eyes
Reading a diary of a poet's dreams
Lost in fog I fall somewhere
Merging with earth's dust
A blue-eyed black bird is born again
Once arrows, now guns are aimed at it
I fear not, my blood will mix in the crimson of autumn
I'll begin my flight again from some other country
Some other direction
Carving life out of your words
I am not of this world
Is it right to say anything more about myself,
Just this much is enough
The literal translation of this poem was made by Lucy Rosenstein
The final translated version of the poem is by The Poetry Translation Workshop
© Poetry Translation Centre 2004-2012
Norbert Hirschhorn says:
It does look like the kind of bird one would put one's trust in!