Long Drive
Utpal Datta
Sometimes it’s wonderful to go out on a long drive
You, I and a few complex moments that can mould us into dreams
We’ll release a few words that we’d held captive
And let ourselves be in their bondage
On the driving-seat your forehead is beaded with sweat
I hold your hand; it’s not touch by courage
We traverse the city-glamour replete with coloured sences of a diurnal routine
We traverse the pains claims fears diffidence needs and
Unending nights of a well’s depth
Our journey our long-drive is for the light of a fancied day
: Well, have you listened to your favourite songs
Sometimes a complete song all alone
Have you ever read a love-song with an uncurbed voice
Have you a voice are alive
Have you ever heard the soundless sound of a broken heart
: This journey of ours is but for a song
For a breath for a poem
For the warmth of the veins for an untouchable touch
For a moment that can put time to standstill
We descend from the wide path to a narrow lane
We descend or do we make our entry
To another unknown world that awaits forever
To be dyed with the dust of our feet
The concrete landscape changes its hue
Green that too is veiled by the midday sun
The charging hill takes us in its cuddle
The winds say
Release sow all your breath
: do you want to say anything
: What will I say?
…………………………………..
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: if the stars of the sky descend to the bosom of the earth
Smear their bodies with all the darkness?
: if you were to descend yourself lower and lower?
At what level should I keep you
: Why do you break my dreams over and over again
: You too
: Are our words simply a routine of broken dreams?
: I can’t behold any more dreams in your eyes
I won’t be able to pen a single line for you
In my confidential diary
: I hate to see the mud soiled flags by the roadside
: But there too lies my individual vanity
Onto it is tagged my signature of liberty
: Your vanity is only the other name decline
The purport of your freedom is serfdom before another
We, after, all keep whirring in our own deep wells of darkness
In joy in conceit in the tryst of primitive inebriation
What’s the need of our long-drive
From openness to wider expanses
In a new car with a new shirt on
We’ll go out on a short trip again another day
If you could hand me some of your
Dream like moments
I’ll touch if I can your heart as well an mine
Translated into English by
