The Fragrance of Stillness

 One.
 How much work an innkeeper has, Lord, I already know!
 Still, hands joined in supplication, this plea—
 come wander this year,
 in this year's monsoon clouds my solitude is binding terribly tight!
 Solitude keeps so busy!
  
 Girl, listen, the moment that has become a cloud,
 keep it at a distance in that very moment!
 Don't wrap its wet body around yours;
 get a little wet, don't waste a single drop!
 Know this—rain never knows the way,
 unbridled sunshine heeds no target!
  
 Are you then like them?
 Do you chase away past sorrows
 for immediate comfort?
 Then let it be so, stay in riddles, girl!
 Just remember,
 among night's stars the sun sleeps!
  
 Two.
 I hear
 all butterflies will go into exile,
 roses will receive pollen of their own accord,
 bees will only fly a little distance in the gentle breeze;
 all pollen grains will float away in the southern wind...
 If all this becomes the rule,
 when will flowers' sorrow end?
  
 O my god, friend of kings,
 tell the king—the harvest of sin has long since ripened!
 Our farmers, our laborers, our coolies, our own sons
 just stand and weep and watch
 as they tear out their own eyes,
 their tongues covered entirely with festering wounds,
 their hands can't lift the harvest, only blood rises!
 They think—so this is how God dispenses justice!
  
 Three.
 On which woman's body will stones sleep today?
 Which child's food will stop from tomorrow?
 They only smell the gunpowder of killers, see their swagger,
 and watch as the innocent hang from ropes!
 He who has no head has no headache!
 Do good, get heaven; do evil, get this earth!
 This indeed is the name of state and society—servants of God!
  
 When a father's child grows up in the mother's name,
 gets no life, gets curses!
 Trying to grow up in fathers' homes,
 buying breath at great cost,
 breaking mountains of unfamiliarity to reach the peak, only then I know
 liberation comes. In the father's kingdom, in the mother's name—this is the rule!
 In your eyes' color, in your forehead's creases—father's shadow,
 in your lips' curve, throat's hollow, even in your chin—father's form,
 yet remember, when fathers make society walk,
 what you call life-giver—trampling conscience, lives by law, makes others live by law!
 Leave it all! The name you place on your door is fake!
 The name by which the whole world will know you tomorrow—that's real!
  
 Four.
 Words were flowing. Sudden silence!
 Words aren't flowing. Silence is flowing.
 Brothers, come, let us listen to silence.
  
 Did someone knock...at this midnight?
 Or is this just delusion? Or a fearful dream?
 Is this a house of love? Or of passion?
 I look and see bloodstone scattered on the floor!
 Rattling in the window glass!
 Is this death, or does the heart tremble?
 A storm rises—not outside, but in the mind's chambers.
 Someone is coming! Light blazes! And I am blind!
  
 The freedom I bought in centuries—
 why should I bind it again with chains
 for a moment?
 I won't bind anymore,
 won't move with bound mind,
 let whatever happens happen!
 I won't obey its wishes anymore,
 all the melodies that exist, and all the wine,
 I won't forget by mixing in the minor key!
 I will perhaps become a butterfly,
 life's demands will make me forget,
 I'll forget, yet...won't break wings even by mistake!
  
 Five.
 Did the clock then stop completely in its stupor?
 How many hours passed, tell me, as I spoke
 with you beneath this jarul tree.
 I saw the moon crawling, peeping through gaps in branches,
 intoxication flowing in our eyes in the drunken breeze...
 I saw it all in the gentle magic of your hair-knot.
 Dawn breaks, yet night doesn't end
 in your spell.
 Come then, let's mend that pair of flower vases
 broken only in careless pride!
 Forgetting you, I forgot myself—
 didn't you also forget yourself like that?
 When I knew myself, I knew you too—
 leaving you to stay with myself,
 how did I get such courage?
 You search frantically for yourself—getting this news
 I came running to your house!