A Sentiment

BY PRAFULLADATTA GOSWAMI

(Rendered from his poem in Assamese)

Other things wanted me, and I didn’t want you;

But you came and told me that I wanted you,

That I couldn’t do but want you;

That was my undoing–

You came like a cool whiff when the noon lay drowsed

with the weight of the summer sun–

Like a whiff you melted away,

You passed out of my life like a flicker by a sick-bed;

I waited. I waited knowing there’s no use,

for you won’t come, you couldn’t come;

So I go on, go on living–

a popular figure, and envied, and a model, and what not;

Yes. I have to dance to their tune,

Only I know the dance has lost rhythm–

lost rhythm in a world which is a broken concert,

And which we are attempting to mend.

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