Fall

This is the way that autumn came to the trees:
It stripped them down to the skin,
left their ebony bodies naked.
It shook out their hearts, the yellow leaves,
scattered them over the ground.
Anyone could trample them out of shape
undisturbed by a single moan of protest.

The birds that herald dreams
were exiled from their song,
each voice torn out of its throat.
They dropped into the dust
even before the hunter strung his bow.

Oh, God of May have mercy.
Bless these withered bodies
with the passion of your resurrection;
make their dead veins flow with blood again.

Give some tree the gift of green again.
Let one bird sing.

Faiz Ahmed Faiz (1911-1984) - translated by Naomi

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Trees Of Jaipur III

Image
Wednesday October 8th 2008. 1. KHEJARI : Local Name. Botanical name: Prosopis Cineraria Druce. The Khejri tree is the State Tree of Rajasthan, India. It’s a thorny small tree…. deep-rooted making it thus drought resistant. Khejri tree is sacred & is considered lucky to grow at home. It has many uses . .. Its thorny branches are cut and used as a fence to keep animals away from crops, The leaves are dried and used for feed and its bean-like fruit can be eaten ripe or unripe. The wood is used as fuel. 2. Castor Tree : Castor bean, Castor oil plant, Wonder tree • Hindi : Arandi Botanical name: Ricinus communis The castor tree, is an upright, tropical is a small tree, grows up to 30 feet tall. The Green leaves have uneven edge. The flat seeds are in a seedpod that burst when ripen. When mature the oblong fruit turns brown. The seeds of castor oil plant, are very poisonous…,however, once prepared commercially castor oil contains no toxic characteristics.. The oil extracted from the bea
Read more

Trees Of Jaipur I: Indian Gooseberry

Image
Saturday 4th October 2008 Common name: Amla, Indian Gooseberry. Botanical name: Phyllanthus emblica. 1. A mla (pronounced Awanlah) {N is silent} Is an indigenous tree to the Indian subcontinent, Amla is a small to medium sized deciduous tree (plants that shed their leaves annually at the approach of a season of cold or drought), reaching 8 to 18 m in height, the fruit is edible of the same name. The Tree is pleasing to look at….with crooked trunk and spreading branches drooping down. The leaves are simple, nearly stalk less and closely set along slender branchlets. The leaves are often mistaken for leaflets of pinnate leaves (describes a leaf that has a central axis or stem with parts branching off it). The flowers are small, greenish-yellow or pinkish. The fruit is nearly spherical, light greenish yellow, quite shiny and hard looking, with 6 vertical stripes or furrows. Ripening in autumn, the berries are harvested by hand after climbing to upper branches bearing the fruits. Sour &
Read more