Beyond Land and Time

At Last

(Ôboshєshє)

Translated by Anupam Banerji

On this mead

The towering trees sway

And play in pervasive peace.

As the high noon heat settles

On emerald foliage,

Again the trees remember

Earth dawn on the river.

As the day dims to its end

They laze motionless again

As prodigious deer.

From somewhere far away

It seems hazy air carries tiger-odour

To haunt their hearts. And see,

The peace they share so secretly

Is shaken by trembling leaves!

Yet they can leap away together

On lightning legs like deer

In pale bosom of cerulean air,

Like union men working on

Voting ballots in unison.

Yet, as a tigress

It is the breeze they embrace

In passion for sands of ocean

And for night's constellation.