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.

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  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.

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