Beyond Land and Time

Gone is the Kingfisher

(Ônnô Prєmik-ke)

Translated by Mohammad Nurul Huda

Gone is the kingfisher—not now, a tale told long back;

Then repeating his comebacks to make his visuals radiant,

Neglected and disregarded by mankind, he has decayed;

Yet man’s own heart has much suffered

Withdrawing the two eyes from inexpressible icons of nature;

It considered the worship of intellect and lust as supreme so far.

Gone is the kingfisher—not now, a tale told long back,

Then repeating his comebacks he has wasted

The glow of wing-feathers to meet his own waning.

Not the kingfisher a sun like a human being?

Men are going ahead working and talking and thinking;

Although the finest thoughts, diving under thought-storming

Seawater tells us the story of not silence, but some other thing.