The
Bird of Prey
SHIV KUMAR BATALVI
Oh mother! I’ve lost my
heart to a bird of prey
Crowned head and ankleted feet
Tamely pecking at grain
he came towards me.
It was the brilliance of
his beauty that struck me first
Then there was this
thirst for fragrance
Added to this a rich
complexion
doing justice to his handsome
ancestry.
I laid, a woven bed of
love
Beneath a canopy of
stars
The very instant he trod
the weave
My apparel was tainted a
muddied hue.
A numb ache pervades my teanducts
Yet a flood of tears
encroaches
The night wears out.....
In vain, I wonder at
this cruel slight.
Come dawn with tender
care
Offer him delicacies favoured by aves
He declines.....
I feed him the very
flesh of my heart.
Just one energetic soar
And he had flown–never
to reappear
Oh Mother! I’ve lost my
heart to a bird of prey.
–Translated from Punjabi
by Jaskiran Grewal