Gulzar Translations

My Apologies, Sona by Gulzar loose translation by Michael R. Burch My apologies, Sona, if traversing my verse's terrain in these torrential rains inconvenienced you. The monsoons are unseasonal here. My poems' pitfalls are sometimes sodden. Water often overflows these ditches. If you stumble and fall here, you run the risk of spraining an ankle. My apologies, however, if you were inconvenienced because my dismal verse lacks light, or because my threshold's stones interfered as you passed. I have often cracked toenails against them! As for the streetlamp at the intersection, it remains unlit ... endlessly indecisive. If you were inconvenienced, you have my heartfelt apologies! *** Come! by Gulzar loose translation by Michael R. Burch Come, let us construct night over the monumental edifice of silence. Come, let us clothe ourselves in the winding sheets of darkness, where we'll ignite our bodies' incandescent wax. As the midnight dew dances its delicate ballet, let us not disclose the slightest whispers of our breath! Lost in night's mists, let us lie immersed in love's fragrance, absorbing the musky aromas of our bodies! Let us rise like rustling spirits ... *** Old Habits Die Hard by Gulzar loose translation by Michael R. Burch The habit of breathing is an odd tradition. Why struggle so to keep on living? The body shudders, the eyes veil, yet the feet somehow keep moving. Why this journey, this restless, relentless flowing? For how many weeks, months, years, centuries shall we struggle to keep on living, keep on living? Habits are such strange things, such hard things to break! *** Inconclusive by Gulzar loose translation by Michael R. Burch A body lies on a white bed— dead, abandoned, a forsaken corpse they forgot to bury. They concluded its death was not their concern. I hope they return and recognize me, then bury me so I can breathe.