Think thou well, there’s the dark on thy way! Look, the sunset is heavily reddening. There are contrary winds and slant rains, And the roads looking threatening. There the language is brute And the gossip is rude, There encounters are hardly advisable In the land where the grass has been burnt to the root And no tracks are cognizable - In the dark. Combats test the people’s steadfastness there, ’Midst the mist and ungovernable tempests. And the hearts are abruptly ensnared By obscure, uncontrollable tempos. There the language is brute And the gossip is rude, There encounters are hardly advisable In the land where the grass has been burnt to the root And no tracks are cognizable - In the dark. There the sounds and colors are stark, But to choose something else is impossible. They’re awaiting my aid in the dark! While there’s life, all is possible. There the language is brute And the gossip is rude, There encounters are hardly advisable In the land where the grass has been burnt to the root And no tracks are cognizable - In the dark.
© Akbar Muhammad. Translation, 2014
(akbarmuhammad.org)
[Adapted from Pavlo Shostak’s “In the Darkness”.]