Lalijan Rawal
Night did not fall in this town today
the day is extending far and wide
in the day’s extension
how long is a labor bound to toil?
In the terror of light,
how long is a farmhand kept from dozing?
Many poems got written in the town
grudging the slow passage of the night
many a song was sung in the same town
appealing for the onset of the morn
but these days, the gesture of the symbols are taking reverse turns,
images are bearing divergent glimpses.
Why could not dusk come here
to rub the exhaustion of the day?
Who stopped the night in the midway?
How could putting black spectacles alone
deal with the day’s terror and light’s atrocities?
How could those hands,
that bear light from palaces and mansions to the huts, know
that, that light could disturb
the modest joy and rest prevailing in the hut?
Night did not fall in this town today.
And for this, little dreams of joy couldn’t be dreamt of
no moment of solitude and tranquility
could be procured too
to escape from the daylong tumult and pain
nor could the right time be managed
to shed a pair of teardrops in someone’s memory.
What an unjust time the day proved to be!
Is it all what a day means?
Is it all what light means?
Water is motion; but it can also carry life away,
fire is power; but it can also burn the creation away,
this is not a new thing; everyone knows
for that, people in this town are meekly bearing
the day’s terror and light’s atrocity.
Whispers are heard somewhere—
night didn’t fall in this town today.
Translated by Mahesh Paudyal
Poet Lalijan Rawal is an active litterateur of the progressive cult, and a successful poet and ghazal writer. His creations fundamentally are reverberation of human sensibilities against the decadence and debauchery veiled hitherto by a thick darkness. He was born on 11 January 1965 in Achham District of Nepal. He started writing around 1979 and his first published work was Sangharsha (Struggle), that appeared in Matribhoomi in 1980. His published works are Yas Patak Pani (This Time as Well, poems), Marubhoomi Maathi (On Desert, poems); Kehi Ghazalharu (Some Ghazals), Binarno yo Thaunma (In this Strange Land, ghazals), Siranima Aansu (Tears on the Pillow, ghazals) and Euta Banda Khaam (A Closed Envelope, ghazals. He has received Lokendar Literary Award, National Talend Award, Tanneri Talent Honor etc. He lives in Kathmandu and works for the government’s media Radio Nepal.