Drivellings from a Dropout Horse: Maznu Shah in Translation || ANDALEEB

Maznu Shah (b. March 26, 1970) is an acclaimed Bangladeshi poet from the 90s. He has published seven poetry books thus far. The following poems are part of his sixth collection of poetry titled ‘Aami Ek Dropout Ghora(2016)’. He now resides in Brescia, Italy.

1.
​The deeper you get into the Library, the closer you see Charles Baudelaire –smiling at you from the top of a snake crate.

2.
Mistakenly I’ve reached the land of mute and deaf. And my horse out here is almost blind, immobile. 

3.
The Muse is tuning a radio knob. Here I do nothing but stimulate her art-cells on. 

4.
Getting down from the spaceship, the celestial poet is now chattering with the Rai grasses. Barefoot, he will then reach his secret Swan-lake. 

5.
You are loitering with your fishing hook. After a while, a bride-fish shall seduce a Lotus. 
How inestimable everything here, how awfully materialistic! 

6.
Sometimes the world goes wrong when their tender bride slumps down her vermilion pot. 

7.
Slowly I pour some bizarre slangs straight into the heart of a rose-bud.
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8.
That’s the Peacock-mound, our Ice-Cream had melted slowly before we reached for the  velvet-apple tree at the top. 

9.
Hatred is a downward spiral. My deity, here is the query, the coffee-cup, the cruel thrash and all your subterranean write-up. Now tell me how you managed this intonation.


10.
The silhouette is moving now. The bonfire is adorning the Grand-lotus. Today I am here to assemble. I am here to find my stuffed owl and my crimson calendar.