Basudev Adhikari
Who makes
such a pretty flower bloom?
Nature does it.
Who adds color
upon such beautiful blossoms?
Nature does it.
Who adds fragrance
upon the beautiful flowers?
It’s nature that does.
Who is entitled
to pluck off such pretty flowers?
It’s nature.
Like a flower’s petals
like its whorl,
several questions have a single answer: Nature!
It’s true—
that the sun
the bumblebees
and the wind
can embrace the flower in their playfulness;
at times,
the gardener or the priest
might encroach upon their privacy
yet, under no circumstance
can a gun ever play with flowers!
A gun can never pluck off a flower;
it can never lay its hand upon a bud
What if it’s stunted—
a gun cannot touch a flower plant!
Talibanian guns!
Who gave you permissions
to pluck off juvenile twigs?
To lay your hands upon the buds?
Your heinous heart?
I now have to deal with that very heart.
I have got to fight with it, now.
Translation: Mahesh Paudyal
[Basudev Adhikar is a well-known poet and ghazal writer. His published works include Samayaka Swarhau, Manko Hariyo Manko Geet, Aafantalai Sambodhan, Yurosparsha, Chyatiyeko Shabtakosh, Gayab Sungabha and Bastima Aago.]