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Friday 16 December 2016

Dry lullabies

Where’s your mother gone?
To the chena of course
The loner was already there
they say

When I heard
to the chena I ran
and saw little beads of milk
all over its trunk

Where’s your father gone?
Why, to sell the rice
No, no, I lied
to gulp kaneru seeds he went

Look! A she-elephant
Peeping through the electric fence
Where’s my baby,

with a broken voice she asks

[translation of "වියළි නැළවිලි" from the collection "මීළඟ මීවිත" by Ruwan Bandujeewa]

2 comments :

  1. You have done justice to the original. Hope to see more of your translations plus the original, Neruda type work of yours.

    ReplyDelete
  2. These poems express something that cannot be turn in to words.When it comes to last line of the poem , always something was stuck in my throat.

    ReplyDelete