Bhalchandra Nemade |
A poem by the great Marathi poet, novelist and critic Bhalchandra Nemade :
Find some rumpsize room on a bench in the local trainAnd you're done.Everything's straight the train straight the rails straightAll you have read in the library was straightHow straight the lines one below the otherHow straight the pages one after anotherThe traffic along the main street too moves in a queueFind a place to sit and you're done
A lot of scum's surfaced on the brain, will sink right into itAlbeit so bewitching the beauties in the streetEveryone stares but no one dares touch themSwitched on once at dusk the fluorescent ads are in a dazzleAll through the nightAfter all the lights ought to be on at nightThat is, nobody heeds the sun's presence by dayThe necklace of electric lights looks becoming on the night's breast.This is lovely.Now let the last station approachAnd you're done.
This translation has been done by Nemade himself, and it was published in The Little Magazine (Vol. 8, Issue 1 & 2).