The Comet
(Original: Dhumketu)
Kazi Nazrul Islam
Translation: Kabir Chowdhury
=========================
I
come in every age,
I come again and again.
Now I have come for the great revolution.
I am the creator's deadly foe,
the devastating comet of all
times,
On my forehead shines the burning fire
of seven hundred hells.
I am the piteous sighs in the heart of the creator
repentant for his sinful creation.
On this earth I am the shadow of the Gobi
and the
Sahara,
I am the godless, unholy, bitter curse!
FIying
the banner of ruination
I whirl madly through vast empty
space, f
I fight alone and strike at God
with my sharp poisoned arrow
Entwining the entire creation around my tail
I shower everywhere the flaming
rains,
of a million meteors.
I have already devoured a universe
but I can devour thirty more
I am a calamity, a terrible accident,
an evil curse of the universe!
The
midget fate hdd stretched his hands
to catch and
curb me.
But look, the flames of my fire
have burnt
his hands and turned him
into a
helpless cripple.
I
known that trick of creation,
I known where the creation,
And so I kick at alI rules and regulations,
and hit hard with my hammer
on God's stony breast.
I know that what the hoIlow stuffed God
could not achieve
would still be achieved!
Therefore I rebel and welcome Revolution, I
Therefore I dance and sing merrily!
I spit at the face of death
and blow out the burning fires
of a thousand hells.
The
more people fume and rage
the more I laugh and make fun of
them,
I move like a hurricane
and my poisoned breath drives a
mortal terror
into the heart of all tyrannous
kings,
I burn the whole creation
with the flames of my fire
I crunch God into tiny pieces and swallow at a gulp
a million hells.
Filled
with a bitter happiness
I dance and sing like one gone
mad.
I build a burning fire in my bosom
that I can
roast God in its flames.
I come in every age.
It is time I have come for the great revolution.
I am the creator's deadly foe,
the devastating comet of all times! A
I
burn a flaming ladder of fire,
I effortlessly sail over God's head
The god of the universe sitting in his throne
trembles in fear lest I brand on his
pale forehead
the sign of my terrible curse.
Oh,
how he makes me laugh
and how the sound of my ringing
laughter
merges with the song of thunder and
raging
cyclone
Clapping my hands in ecstasy
I go whirling through empty
space
like some crazy kite,
At the faintest touch of my breath
volcanoes erupt with a roar
and a million baby-snakes, coiled
around my tail,
hiss and lay bare their poisonous fangs!
As
the fierce tigress refrains from killing its prey
with a single blow
and keeping it steadily in sight
plays with it with a gleaming cruel joy
while the poor prey pants and whines
So do I keep God within the range
of my sight and play with him,
laughing all the time my blood-curling
demoniac laughter.
I
am that fiery tigress,
the greatest calamity of all time!
Drunk with blood I celebrate and rejoice today,
From my tail emanates a dazzling radiance,
filling the earth with a fierce,
butal joy,
God?
There lies he, a poor captive,
foaming at the lips in fear and
frustration.
He trembles and cowers
afraid of the moment when I shall
rush
and jump on his wounded breast
Or, like an angry black cobra
whirling round a helpless frightened
child
I,
a fierce Comet-cobra, the bitterest curse of all time,
whirl round God as he sits there
trembling in fear like that
snake-encircled helpless child.
Today
sitting in the midst of a sad and
suffering creation
God trembles in fear
lest the created, growing bigger than
the
creator, swallows him at last
Courtesy:
Mohammad Nurul Huda. Poetry of Kazi Nazrul Islam in English Translation [Dhaka:
Nazrul Institute, 2000). pp. 36-38.