God's Home Poem by Hassanal Abdullah

In my childhood I saw many gods
With their red wide eyes
Full of threats.
My days passed by
Like a scared chick
Thrown into the corner of domesticity.

I did not raise my eyes to face them eye-to-eye.
They were on my head
As well as in thought's soft stage
And standing still in my path of vision.

I was not unhappy,
Walking behind them, but at times
I longed for a walk on the horizon
Away from their kingdom.
The thirst for freedom
Loomed in my burning breast.

Gods are still there, even more modern,
Robust, with their feet on atomic spheres:
Their cobwebs imprison my days.
In fact
I have not moved an inch from their kingdom.


Translated from the Bengali by Nazrul Islam Naz