365bet娱乐

By Prof. HEM BARUA, M.A.

(i)
The flower blooms
and itssweetness ripplesin the breeze:
the eye moves infrenzy
in quest of an eternal beauty.
The lotus-petals wither
and the flower fades鈥�
We exist in darkness
under a colonnade of bombs and shells,
鈥榓ncient-mariner鈥� like
on the extremity of civilisation鈥檚聽
limitlessly barren desert.

(ii)
The avenue of green trees and foliage lines
radiant with April-bloom,
the way-side.
On the highway where traffic throbs
there are stones and iron,
stones and steel,
stones and pneumatic tyres
and the end-of-the world thunder
of whizzing wheels
and a pale-faced maiden,
a slim virgin
withdark hair blown鈥�
blown by the breezes
and scattered about the curves
of the lips insoft and heavy clusters.
Her hair isdark,鈥�
dark like the night that overshadows
civilisation鈥檚 citadel.聽
Enclosed within and
near the bosoms
there鈥檚 a bouquet of blood-red flowers
as though dipped in gore
flowingthrough Kurukshetra of yore.
Blood is cheap:
human souls are cheaper still.
And so flows the stream of blood
of the human heart
kissing the horizon
of civilisation鈥檚 limitlessly barren desert^.*

^* Translated from the original Assamese by the Author.