Beyond Land and Time

A Night of Vigil

(Rātri ônimєsh)

Translated by Rasheda Zahura

What a clear profound wind blows.

With shimmering innumerable stars in the autumn night,

the earth is transformed into a silently flown stream

as immaculate as bare hands of a woman.

The earth resembles the sky;

And the sky seems to be Time;

Whence hasn’t she appeared−where hasn’t she gone?

On the entire faint lit creation a shadow of a tall woman is cast

In the field, − in the ditch−in the death in a shanty−

in minarets,−

In tumults of peace and disorder−in the city ablaze −

in to men’s sleeping eyes.

The stars are fewer now.

Is there the shadow in the wind−

among the white starlit clouds besides the camels

of a caravan of merchants? −

My life has ceased–is it suddenly drawn to an end?

As if hibernating in a camp the entire autumn.

When I woke I found none,

No sound,

No camel,

Only the shadows of the camels cling to the desert

In the lit calm fathomless autumn night,

What a profound wind blows and all the stars flicker, glow and dim, inflamed again like the intimate candle

in that woman’s hand.