Ask me not… I beg you, ask me not…
What avalanche cleaves the heart within?
If the soul departs… if it must depart… this leaving is a storm the heart cannot erase.
The sun descends, a pallid, fading sphere;
The night has wept, its vigil long and deep—
How many hours yet until the dawn appears?
Open your eyes, awaken, gaze on me.
Speak once more, I pray, and be for me.
Open your eyes, awaken, gaze on me.
Say my name once more, and take me with you…
……
…………………………
And who shall tell, and who shall now be told,
That all our lamentations have been spent?
He took the tidings of the heart away,
Left the heart’s own weather in its stead,
And journeyed on a road of no return.
The very sky a mantle on his frame,
He laid himself to rest on the ocean’s bed.
In a silence absolute, all tears were dried.
What is left behind? What could survive?
O Mother Assam’s cherished, precious son…
My own dear mother’s one, most treasured child—
He, too, is gone…
Go, live in heaven, and dwell in peace—
For you, your mother weeps today.
And how shall I now bear this weight?
How find a place to rest?
How form a single thought?
…Shall we, too, swim the Brahmaputra’s heart and meet our end?
The distant sea can never comprehend
Your vastness, O my son,
For you were boundless as the sea itself…
And now, become the Brahmaputra’s surge,
Only these endless tears can flow.
Clutching this river to my breast,
I set upon its foam and bubbles
The total, crushing agony of loss!!!
...
You are not here… you are not here today…
…And yet, somewhere you are.
And so, I must stay awake;
Our unfeigned love stays ever awake;
The soul of this entire nation lies awake,
With but one anguished cry—
Leaving a wounded world behind, O wayfarer,
How, in this illusory night, did you meet a silent, final hour?
How can the spirit ever acquiesce
To still the vibrant tiger’s mighty roar?
Can the great Luit’s voice be truly silenced??
O Mother Assam, why does your sweetest, dearest air
Now seem a fractured and a broken song?
Why do the very trees stand disarrayed?
Who was it that departed, tell me, who?
He who was the very breath, the timeless, steadfast tune,
The very reason for a million hearts to live!!
©βοΈ Mottakinur Rahman
Ask me not… I beg you, ask me not…
What avalanche cleaves the heart within?
If the soul departs… if it must depart… this leaving is a storm the heart cannot erase.
The sun descends, a pallid, fading sphere;
The night has wept, its vigil long and deep—
How many hours yet until the dawn appears?
Open your eyes, awaken, gaze on me.
Speak once more, I pray, and be for me.
Open your eyes, awaken, gaze on me.
Say my name once more, and take me with you…
……
…………………………
And who shall tell, and who shall now be told,
That all our lamentations have been spent?
He took the tidings of the heart away,
Left the heart’s own weather in its stead,
And journeyed on a road of no return.
The very sky a mantle on his frame,
He laid himself to rest on the ocean’s bed.
In a silence absolute, all tears were dried.
What is left behind? What could survive?
O Mother Assam’s cherished, precious son…
My own dear mother’s one, most treasured child—
He, too, is gone…
Go, live in heaven, and dwell in peace—
For you, your mother weeps today.
And how shall I now bear this weight?
How find a place to rest?
How form a single thought?
…Shall we, too, swim the Brahmaputra’s heart and meet our end?
The distant sea can never comprehend
Your vastness, O my son,
For you were boundless as the sea itself…
And now, become the Brahmaputra’s surge,
Only these endless tears can flow.
Clutching this river to my breast,
I set upon its foam and bubbles
The total, crushing agony of loss!!!
...
You are not here… you are not here today…
…And yet, somewhere you are.
And so, I must stay awake;
Our unfeigned love stays ever awake;
The soul of this entire nation lies awake,
With but one anguished cry—
Leaving a wounded world behind, O wayfarer,
How, in this illusory night, did you meet a silent, final hour?
How can the spirit ever acquiesce
To still the vibrant tiger’s mighty roar?
Can the great Luit’s voice be truly silenced??
O Mother Assam, why does your sweetest, dearest air
Now seem a fractured and a broken song?
Why do the very trees stand disarrayed?
Who was it that departed, tell me, who?
He who was the very breath, the timeless, steadfast tune,
The very reason for a million hearts to live!!