Curfew… (Telugu Original by Bharati Kode)
English Translation: Nauduri Murthy
Telugu: Bharati Kode
Sometimes it happens like that…
There will be a ban on greetings and consolations.
A writ soon issues
That dreams should not cross the threshold of eyelids
And even a film of tear should not blur the eyeball.
It perplexes who the criminal is, and who gets sentence.
Spring visits innocently at its appointed hour
But the woods refuse to go abloom
Poor Clouds! They come together to quench the thirst
But people turn to statues that have no longing for it.
God knows which divine curse befell them!
The interdiction continues amidst doubts and ambiguity.
It confounds whether one would survive through
Or live as if every breath is his last.
Yet, heart pretends to beat as though everything was all right…
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Nauduri Murthy is a Managing Director by profession and a poet and a passionate translator. He translated hundreds of poems from Telugu to English and vice versa.