2017-02-16

Nótaí on Ind

Notes from India

i.m. Pearse Hutchinson     (1927 -2012)

Sujata Bhatt


Two a.m. in Mumbai
and the crows are still loud.
They circle the trees –
hundreds of them around our house.
A crow has died and all the others
keep cawing, cawing through the night
into the morning – endlessly
they keep on calling for days.

I speak of death,
but it’s life I want to praise.

If your soul could travel
would you join me here?

A week later I’m surrounded
by the sound of Telegu
and the sound of another sea –
Even my sleep is green now
beneath the large leaves of an almond tree,
even my dreams are green now
breathing in the green of green coconuts –
 

Nótaí on Ind

i.m. Pearse Hutchinson (1927 -2012)

Sujata Bhatt

 

A dó ar maidin in Mumbai
agus is glórach fós iad na préacháin.
Tá siad ag dul thart ar na crainn –
na céadta díobh lasmuigh.
Tá préachán marbh agus an chuid eile
ag grágaíl leo, ag grágaíl i gcaitheamh na hoíche
go léir go héirí gréine – níl aon deireadh leis
iad ag glaoch lá i ndiaidh lae.

Ar an mbás a labhraím,
ach is í an bheatha is mian liom a mholadh.

Dá mbeadh ar chumas d’anama taisteal
an mbeifeá liom anseo?

Seachtain ina dhiaidh sin
is glór na Teileagúise gach áit
agus glór ó mhuir eile –
Is glas é mo shuan, fiú, anois
faoi dhuilleoga móra chrann almóinní,
is glas fiú anois mo bhrionglóidí
agus glas na gcnónna cócó glasa á líonadh

 

(Poppies in Translation, Carcanet, 2015)