This noon I do not sleep, I do not wake, I do not die, I do not live <br />Time enters the room through the window, until this noon I did not know my hand, my own thin hand is a lyre <br />You grab the hand like a musician grabs his instrument from elbow to index finger and you look at it as if <br />'what a wonderful thing it is' <br />Your lips fall from the peak of the finger on flashed the major and minor notes, on and on <br />In my palm you discover a red vein, what a surprise, it trembles, which until this noon I did not know <br /> <br />I knew nothing about water, land, and sky before this noon <br />I do not sleep, I do not wake, I do not die, I do not live only a bird <br />comes and lands on my face <br />A village falls like a stone into the river and the river changes its direction <br />Since that time, there is a stream of hill water in place of my home, I do not drown, I do not float, I do not fly <br /> <br />I am not more than this stream, if you cup me in your hands, you can refresh yourself <br />I can do no work except splash your face <br />The time for your swim has come… <br /> <br />You sink your head under the water and search out my eyes by holding your breath <br />You press your lips against my closed eyes and I remember my wolf's life, my scorpion's life, my python's life <br />my killer's life and the life of hiding in the forest <br />Once I promised to have you in my lips and after so many ages I have come to keep that promise <br />Now nobody will come here, only your head will come down to my lap <br /> <br />Again we'll search out one another, the pressure of your lips caught the life of this noon <br />This noon is a stream that is still, under this stream we will lie together we will not sleep we will not wake <br />we will not die and we were never born <br /> <br />because in this stream the time has stopped--- because <br /> <br />now we are making love <br /> <br /> <br />[Translated from 'Ei Ekta Dupur' (Bengali) by Skye Lavin and Joy Goswami]<br /><br />Joy Goswami<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/this-one-noon/
