The Black Beauty

Translated by M Harunur Rashid

She is a black beauty; I mean black.
Amidst the sun, rain and storm, she is
The light of the scorching heat of midday
Yet she is black, she stays black.

She is the flowery love of small little life, 
She is the raised fist of a protest rally;
When she comes forward to face the darkness of the society, 
There flashes a world of light around her, a flood of light as it were, 
The black beauty is indeed black, 
A light that beats the trembling darkness all around. 

She wraps up the West Wind on her chin, 
The endless, restless wind makes her ride the sails, 
From her sharp glittering eyes flickers the fire of winter, 
In the vernal breeze trembles her faith's long black hair
Sea waves, as it were, stretched to the horizon. 
The black beauty is indeed black, 
A fistful of light ushering in a violent protest march. 

I see her all day without an end – in the streets, in a forlorn native land, 
A Grecian goddess carved in marbles as it were, 
She starts her journey in the angry protest rallies, 
Like the swollen surges breaking on the pebbled shores
Our proud youth too comes close;

The black beauty is black, indeed black
She is the light in a country of the homeless destitute.