THE STRANGER IN MY HOME
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the stranger
in my home

translations

Poems from many places

Some Cuban Poems
Graveyard of war dead
War

All the planes returned to their bases.
But not all the men returned to their homes.
But not all the homes remained of those that returned.
But not all who returned found all in their homes.

(La Guerra by Manuel Diaz Martinez)

Universe and Milky Way

The Milky Way

From the purple sky falls tonight the milky way among the trees.
Roving cats amber lamps bread wine
all conceal a secret: the way is not lost in the fragile fog.

It works like the stealthy spider
like sailboats speeding away at night
it does not stop my wistful reminiscing
over the dust and spreading leaves.

Snow will soon cover the blackened earth
across the window I will see its stark purity,
perhaps a dove will brush its wings past my window pane.

Winter will be lovelier
when your mysterious hair 
fills the white emptiness of my pillow.

(La Via Lactea by Fayad Jamis)
Paradox and Confusion
The Confusion

The worst is this confusion
of feeling within what cannot be explained
of keeping quiet when one must not
of losing one’s measure with the days
of an immutable self
against forces working to change
the life
the lips
the faces and compromises preplanned
of knowing oneself perpetually slipping
and being able to do nothing to change it
for the tyrannies and protests
are beyond our powers
and each word takes us further from the truth
and places us again at a crossing of ways.

(El Azoro by Armando Alvarez Bravo)



Love Songs from Bengal
Togetherness
When we were together

When we were together
I didn’t quite know you
But we were neither afraid nor ashamed
And life was exciting

You would call me at dawn
Like a dear friend
And we would race, laughing,
Through fields and forests.

The songs you sang then –
Heaven knows what they meant –
Made my heart sing
And my world danced mad.

The game is over, the sky is quiet,
The sun and the moon soundless,
The world stands still
Humble, rapt in admiration.

Couple with distance beteen them
Loving couple
Please stay

Please stay a bit more
Do talk to me a little more.

I know you have to go
Don’t be so restless
With that far-away look in your eyes.

Did you get even a hint of
What you came to hear from me
The mute words
That surge in my heart.

When you are away
My heart rings and rings
With its secret message.

When you are near me
Your look leaves me wordless
Like a mute and shiny star
In the dark night of my soul.
Estranged couple
You don’t say much

You speak a lot, but you don’t say much
I have given up trying to understand you.

You look at me, curious, you smile at me
Searching for my inner thoughts
I want to ward you off and I turn away.

Tears have given me clarity
I can see you so clear, but you can’t see me.

Your mind is murky, unknown to you
Unaware, you will let me down
I want to ward you off and I turn away.
When we broke

When we broke
I thought I would never stop shedding tears.

Then the grind of days wore away the florid memory
I never knew when came the moment of oblivion.

As years passed I learned to be unfeeling
I felt sure I wouldn’t have to shed tears again.

Then I suddenly saw you on the road
I just couldn’t stop crying
All my tears have been pooling all these years.
(All songs by Rabindranath Thakur)



Poems from Paris
Picture
Paris at Night

Three matches in the night
lit one by one
The first to see your face in full
The second to see your eyes
The last to see your lips
With the darkness all around
to remind me of all these
as I hold you in my arms.


Breakfast

He put the coffee
in the cup
He put the milk
in the cup of coffee
He put the sugar
in the coffee with milk
He mixed
with the spoon
He drank the coffee
And he put the cup back
without a word to me
Picture
He lit
a cigarette
He made rings
of smoke
He put the ash
in the ashtray
Without a word to me
Without a look at me

He rose
He put
his hat on his head
He put his raincoat
because it was raining
And he left
in the rain
Without a word
Without a look at me

And I took
my head in my hands
and I cried
Jailer’s Song

Where are you going, dear jailer,
with that blood-stained key

I am going to release someone I love
if there is still time
Whom I locked up
Tenderly, cruelly
As the greatest secret of my desire
As the height of my torment
In the lies of the future
In the folly of vows

I am going to release her
I want her to be free
And even to forget me
even to leave me
even to come back
and to love me again

Or to love another
If another pleases her

And if I stay here alone
And she leaves
I will only keep
I will always keep
In the hollow of my two hands
Until the end of days
The softness of her breasts shaped by love.
Picture
(Three poems by Jacques Prévert)



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© Manish Nandy 2015  The Stranger in My Home