Two Poems by Niloy Rafiq – Translator: Jyotirmoy Nandy

The Seaweed
White clouds drift through the heat of memory-lanes,
While idle spades lie mute, rusted, and worn.
Petitions rise-prayers, dreams, word-born cries—
Save the sweet smile, the gaze that adorns.
By the pond, trees sway to the song of awe, Waves swim in brine-kissed love toward the sea.
A guest-rose, beguiled by beauty, leaves home—
Guard chastity from the night’s black decree.
Pebbled grace, awaken nature’s sleeping eye,
Save the seaweed, grass, and the weeping bloom.
Dark coins of beauty plunder the dancing body
Casuarina shadows, formless shells in gloom.
Shame
The mindscape-green sky over mountain thoughts,
A breeze of contentment through heart’s open window.
Nature burns in the city’s barren trees, Peace, O peace-messenger of love’s prayer.
Rain’s artistry breaks the chest into a hundred blooms,
Lost soil breathes the scent of rooted life.
I stay beside you in helpless, honest lines, While shadows trade in deceitful rendezvous.
Shame stirs the soul-ashamed of our humanity,
All around, a festival of plunder flows.
In wounded pride, night flowers sob in silence,
Forget the pages of memory-let roses bloom.



