SAJJAD SHARIF
Sajjad Sharif is literary editor of Prothom Alo, the largest selling national daily in Bangladesh. He has recently published his debut poetry collection.
Moonstruck
You didn’t heed my warning
you
spread your wings
and took off
and flew around
zigzagging all night
you
didn’t take me on your back
o dark
tall deodar tree
you
heard Yama’s wail
in the whistle of the nightwatchman
and
saw with your eyes
all the corpses of the past
coming alive
coming from the future
and you
refusing to be a tree again –
only
now I want to be born again
from your roots.
– Translated by Syed Manzoorul Islam