Snapshot

Night hidden behind that hillock Hasn't peeped out so far The ocean of darkness Hasn't become turbulent till now As yet black snakes Hanging from arms of the clock Stare at us with red ambers of their eyes As yet with bated breath The wolf of time Waits behind blood-strewn sand dunes For ripped-open body of the sun. Surrounded by shadows - green and fresh The shimmering cold water in the blue lake Has as yet not become Acquainted with Swelling waves of strangeness In our eyes. Welcome...... as it is...... The frozen caravan of silent moments And the unacquainted water Stay. Pay heed to me, O stranger, My co- traveller Ere the silent ticking of the clock Turns into an explosion And declares the sun's demise, Shall we Preserve through the camera's eye This meeting of ours On the blind screen of feelings...... With the waning, blood-red Picture of receding evening's myriad scenes? And thus fill the empty cup Of our desires with innocent happiness? (1975, Translated by Dr. Satyapal Anand)