Cauliflower - A translation from Ashif Entaz Robi
Cauliflower- A translation from Ashif Entaz Robi
Men may get possessed with ghosts, mine was a scope to cope with cauliflower. For an uncertain grief, I tried to brief with a rhyme that day
On a winter day, I did not ask , my love , for a flower to thee
If Time permits, please treat with a dish of fried cauliflower, for me,
After posting this rhyme to Facebook, my life and youth turned into a furnace truth, with “Crispy fried, brittle try” of all these. Mitu asked me, “Exactly who is your target audience in this poem?”
I replied with all my simplicity, “ What does it mean referring to the target audience?”
After this, Mitu asked a series of questions within a moment. Altogether this will be almost five hundred questions. I can hardly recall all of these. I can remember only a few of these. Such as
In the first line, there is a word, my love. Who is your love?
Who gives you flowers?
Why is it a gift?
How was the gift gifted?
Where was the gift gifted?
How many times a day, the gift was gifted?
What flower was gifted?
What else were gifted?
What else is there remaining to be gifted?
Fresh flower or plastic flower?
To whom are you crying for the cauliflower, this winter?
With so many things in this world, why are you crying for a cauliflower?
Instead of an uncooked cauliflower, why are you crying for a fried cauliflower?
Why would another maiden cook you a cauliflower dish?
Why are you anorexic about your home made dishes?
Is it about a cauliflower veggie dish or is there a secret recipe?
After a lifelong relishing the truth of cauliflower, why are you covetous about that?
How many more did you need (as per cauliflower?)
When will you be done with your gluttonous appetite?
What is wrong with you?
Do I not serve you with homemade treats?
Are you begging out in the street for a fried cauliflower dish?
Today you are crying on Facebook, will it be a meager plate out in the street, on the next day?
And a newspaper advertisement, on the day after?
Could I not be the solver, if there could be a way you could want me to be simply that, there??
The very last question is a ruthless one. “Why are you so greedy?”
I fell short decisively, to answer these. As a result my life had turned into a resultant truth of cauliflower , decisively. In the breakfast menu, bread and fried cauliflower, during lunch time cauliflower curry, a dinner with fish curry with cauliflower on the side. On every single serving time, there was the presence of cauliflower with obvious cauliflower! In between, I had to learn about the existence of cauliflower soup too!
The amount of cauliflowers present in my serving bowl, last week, would defeat the famous anchor Shaikh Seeraj also, who airs the famous TV program , “Mati O Manush.”
This evening, I requested, “Mitu please make me a cup of ginger tea, with liquor only. I got a cold.”
Mitu, with her hardened posture, followed along to get the tea from the kitchen. I was full of fear. What if tea would be garnished with a cauliflower, instead!
With the divinity’s blessings infinitely, she returned with the cup of tea. She softly spoke. “Do not take tea on an empty stomach. I fried some cauliflower chops, please have these and then finish your tea…”
P.S : There was another question. Now it is coming to my mind. (Sobbing) What is there in a cauliflower that does not belong there for me?
P.S 2: There was another question.Now it came to my mind.
Please tell me the truth. Exactly how many cauliflowers are there that you took without telling me? In a secrecy?
Copyright ©
Tamanna Ferdous
|