Three Poems by Mohibul Aziz

 

Ensuing Christmas

Don’t be gloomy anymore,

I hung bright curtains on all the windows—

Colours reflect on us.

Think of the Eskimos,

Their igloos are the hearths of life

In the freezing cold around,

We too swaddle our hearts with the warmth of life—

Let it incessantly snow outside.

Enormously we ran,

Fell to the ground while running,

Missed the stairs,

Others climbed up,

Some took away our ladders—

This time we’ll cross the stairs sitting down.

The era of defoliation commenced outside,

We shall plant trees inside in the soil of our hearts

Hoping for the manifestations of leaves.

Look at the glitter of the snowflakes in the air,

Put your feelings aside for now,

Awaken your keen eye,

Then you’ll see the pouring flakes are actually

The fireflies of the daytime.

Take this book of ancient wisdom,

Three thousands year ago someone like me

Rose up in Judea and Samaria to utter:

Ani Daluk Alaikh—I’m on fire for you!

Yes, there the furnace burns,

Our body and mind are full of heat—

Let the white Christmas emanate,

We rather bet, Christmas would be white or not,

Let’s lean on the radiator for extra heat,

The colder it’s outside, the warmer it’s inside.

Take out the box of Godiva,

There approaches the melody of the carols.

December wind knocks on the door whispering:

Halleluiah, halleluiah!

 

December Evenings in Cambridge

December evenings in Cambridge were splendid.

The soothing music of the cold outside

And the amazing bustle of life inside.

The children would commence rehearsing

The carols long in advance,

Never knew that an Austrian weaver

Put away his loom in the quiet night

To pick up the music with.

They only hear the footsteps of the reindeer,

Santa Claus lurks deep in each of their hearts.

Being unaware of the conflict between the parents

They make room for the gifts well in advance.

Father opines, what’s the use of keeping

False illusions in their minds!

Let them face the harsh reality of life.

But the mother discerns, it’s not right

To tarnish their dream world.

Maybe one day they themselves would break

The dream-shells!

They may or may not be traumatized

But would discover the dormant strength.

Rabbits approached the dewy field outside,

Who told them—

 Christmas means ample imports of carrots!

Their hopeful eyes glow in the dark

As if the stars emerge in the terrain sky.

 

Not Extraordinary

The huge hill devoured the Marma wench,

The voluminous lake grasped the whole hill.

Where was the girl—

Under the aegis of the green sanctuary

Or in the frame of the big lake!

In this searing afternoon when the Marma girl bloom

In her natural elegance

The hill and the lake were intermingled

To create an inimitable wonder in the vast canvas.

I forget the sequence of paraffin of Salvador Dali

As I turn to retrograde from the serenity

To the quotidian reality of mine.

The voices of silence haunted to shake me in alarm—

Thanks dear Malraux for making me indebted

To your immortal deciphering the codes of the quietude.

The watch-tower in distance was ready to catch,

To seize the words or even the sounds.

Mohibul Aziz was born in Jessore, Bangladesh in 1962. He permanently lives in Chattogram where he is a Professor of the department of Bengali Language and Literature, University of Chittagong. He is the author of nearly sixty books of various genres such as fiction, novel, essays and poems. All of the books are in Bengali. Private Moments, Resurrection of a Reformist and The Memory-Struck Swan of Cambridge are his three books of poetry published in English. His poems have been published in the Lothlorien Poetry Journal and the Setu Bilingual Journal and elsewhere.