–Atmanaam
I don’t know where
this poem
might end –
or when.
I know it cannot end
according to a plan.
I, who am left (if I am)
when it’s ended – am I the same
person I was when it began?
Why this question, and
addressed to whom?
I’ll stay here in the hope
that I’ll get to eat tonight.
Such, too, is hope.
Yesterday that’s now past was
full of dark moments for me.
I hear their toad-cries
often still.
As I founder, not knowing
how to shun it,
the din of the present
rents my eardrums.
Tomorrow dazzles the eye
like an ocean of light.
“Now, right now” –
the heart beats on.
*******
Translated by N Kalyan Raman from untitled Tamil poem by Atmanaam
Madhuram 