Pramila Khadun writes

Where would you like the wind to take you?

To variegated destinations have I gone

In the myriad modes of transport.

I have seen the sun rising and setting,

With all its majesty, bringing light in darkness

And creating darkness where there was light.

I have seen the sea, blue and vast,

The slopes, hills, valleys, widening lakes,

And the beauties of the Alps and the Himalayas

With wonder-struck eyes and mind

Overflowing with the powers of creation.

I have had my tryst with the world of

Culture and agriculture, Science and fiction,

Photography, calligraphy, geometry and geography

And poetry has taken me to heights lucid and candid.

I have seen the world of greed and exploitation,

The futility of war and its strife,

The debilitating illness, the pains of loneliness,

The enemy spewing fire and venom to destroy,

And silent lovers reminiscing the moon-lit nights

Spent by the bonfire burning with a lilac flame.

O wind! Come! Come and take me

To that land where the rationality of man

Has faded into insignificance and he accepts

The inevitability of Truth,

Where man has no nationality and all are one,

Where the waterfront is not illusion or rejection

But compassion in an interplay of red, green and yellow,

Where nights are long for lovers

And days short for workers,

Where our children will be of noble birth

And move heads held high in pride,

Into that land, O Wind,

Let us awake and arise. 

 


Bride of the Wind -- Oskar Kokoschka