Time is a bloody dog, my nightingale!
Come, leave the orchards
and watch the souls wandering homeless
on streets
Bark or howl
in mourning
for your song will cure no one now
Wasn’t this the song that sat like dew on twigs
but fled
terrified like vapours
before a mere flake
of sunlight?
Time is a bloody dog, my nightingale!
It has nibbled away
the hands of clocks
it has bitten off walls
and pissed on flowerpots
Don’t know
what else it would’ve done
hadn’t the government’s men put it on leash
and tied it
outside their bungalows
My nightingale!
My doings are of a different kind
I have lost every wager that looked
like life
I now wish to be horse
not man
For the saddle is too painful
on human bones
the spiky bridle hurts
and my human feet do not keep
the beat of a poem
Time is a bloody dog,
my nightingale!
Translated by Rjesh Kumar Sharma