Shabdaguchha
Shabdaguchha
Rudro Muhammad ShahidullahCorpses Smell in the AirI still smell the corpses in the air I still see death dancing naked in the street I still hear the scream of the women being raped— Has the country forgotten that cruel night of bloodshed? Corpses smell in the air The blood stain is still on the ground People, once sworn for the country Engulfed by the dreadful dark now In the dirty pus of misfortune Hesitantly awake in the nightly cave of oblivion As if, a teenage mother is shamed in adultery. Liberty—is it a spoiled birth? Is it the harvest of infidelity? The old vulture has now clawed the national flag. Corpses smell in the air— Yet, the dancer’s flesh shines in the neon light. Blood stain is on the ground The hungry bones of the poor are dumped in the rice-granary. I can’t sleep. I can’t sleep at all for the whole night. I hear the screams of the raped In my drowsiness— I see the rotting corpses floating through the river The headless dog eaten dead body of a woman appears in my vision I can’t sleep, I can’t sleep . . . Covered in blood-stained-coffin-cloth— Half eaten by the dogs and vultures: My brother, my mother, and my dearest father . . . Liberty—my only beloved, I achieved by sacrificing all others. Liberty—my prime harvest, I bought with the price of The blood of my dearest ones. My sister who was raped and killed: I still see her sari— As if it is now the blood shaded national flag. Rudro Muhammad Shahidullah (1956 - 1991) published five collections of poetry before he died in a very early age. His Collected Works was published after his death in two volumes. He was another bohemian poets of Bangladesh. Rudro married Taslima Nasrin, now the world renowned writer, but the marriage did not last longer. Translated from the Bengali by Hassanal Abdullah |