Here death, killing, violence, hunger <br />round the clock play the doom's game; <br />Snatching, hijacking, injustice, inconvenience <br />grow the grass of sorrow in the field of life. <br /> <br />Here life is like the Padma@ on whose banks <br />stands the sandy sad shoal vast, stretched and lonely; <br />Still life does not bow down to sorrow <br />but stands erect like the rocks. <br /> <br />Here drought, flood, tidal surge <br />come like giants in greed of life <br />and then inflicts raids and riots <br />on life like Azrael*. <br /> <br />Yet what a stony hero this country is- that does not <br />get cracked into parts in drought of sorrow! <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />@the biggest river of Bangladesh, now dead <br />* the angel of death <br />[Translation of Bangla poem 'Pathor Bir' taken from the poet's first book 'Pronoyer Prothom Pap' (1996) ]<br /><br />Sayeed Abubakar<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-stony-hero/
