pir namaboli, translated by nandini sen

Pir Namaboli:
The Pious Man’s Holy Cloth:

Brain stops working. Adina Mosque,
The white car halts in front at ease.
Have you already seen the cold, the mustard field?
The extreme irritation and an uneven road.

Night sets in the Adina Mosque,
Dense and dark, pitch dark.
The lonely young man walks and walks inside the stones.
The yellow shawl wraps him.
Rising his sharp, intense eyes he asks,
“Shall I narrate the history?’
Climbing the stairwells up,
Once again climbing them down.
Stones only stones.
Hindu temple structure;
Muslim King.
Take a keen look inside.
Handsome guide.

Oh! Happy even without taking his fees.
Yellow cloth with Hindu scriptures.
‘Come back! Visit the nearby cheap restaurant.’
“What’s your name?”
‘Tarique Muhammad.’ Is the shy answer.

(I never translate other's poems without taking their permission...In this case I have fallen in love with the poem of Yashodhara Ray Chaudhuri . I know she would forgive me when she discovers I have translated her poem in a stroke. This is for our international members to depict the current situation-world wide??- Nandini Sen)