When Night Arrived

 
Today you left in wounded pride.
I sit motionless in my chair,
speaking to no one.
My mute, unblinking gaze
catches somewhere, again and again!
Inside my head now only
the sound of your departure echoes!


Not just at the corners of my lips,
but at the corners of my eyes too, mist gathers today.
Not as dew on grass tips,
not rain-touched on kadamba trees,
not strung in garlands of fallen bakul,
not touching twilight in the azure sky,
not in the shepherd's flute at day's end in the palash grove…
A storm raged today on the dark sea,
where did that small peacock boat sail in pain's wind,
in the crimson palash forest, blood-red rain fell,
the melody caught in distant birds' throats…
with all of them it echoed in the blue hills.


Could you not hear
this music's lament?
Leaving my love behind,
did you just abandon me alone like this today?
What kind of love is this?


You pushed fate aside, yet surrendered to convention!
Trampling dreams, you sacrificed yourself to tears!


To me you were above all earthly riches!
Yet what cruel fortune is mine!
Today before you, I am lost in fate's abyss!


Were you then only a mirage?
A blazing riddle in the scorching noon?
In forest or in grove, a noonday-long night has come home today!