A BREAK IN THE RHYTHM OF LIFE - Poem by Bhaskar Roy Barman

Bhaskar Roy Barman

When the world itself looked exhausted,

revolving round the sun;

when a bumble-bee sounded tired

of humming round a ternate leaf;

when a few fishermen were venting their rage on their net

-they looked fed up of mending their net off and on -

and when the fish were leaping and playing in the river,

sure as they were the net wont be thrown over them,

yonder on a field a serpent was shedding its slough,

indifferent to a group of women wending their way

across the field

and to a pedlar crying his wares along the road

that ran parallel to the field

At this moment, as usual, a boat rowed in

disgorged two men onto the bank.

A music strummed on a violin floated in the air for a while,

then rose up and disappeared into the sky.

Presently the men returned empty-handed to the boat

and winked at the boatmen to row the boat away.

Suddenly the sky got covered over with pitch-dark clouds.

The fishermen looked up and thought

there would be festivities of lightning

and the river would dance to the rumblings .

They prayed for the safety of the men on the boat.

In response to their prayer the clouds went away across the sky.

The fishermen resumed mending their net;

the world continued revolving round the sun;

the bumble-bee went on round the ternate leaf

and the fish were still leaping and playing in the river .

But the serpent had shed its slough and slid into its hole.