CONVERSATIONS IN A CAR II
Ashok Niyogi
If you and I were to meet again
After twenty years,
How would it seem
My darling friend?
Faces changed, figures transformed,
How would it seem
My darling friend?
In the Metropole,
The same crab casserole.
But different hues and different dyes,
How would it seem
My darling friend?
With words all changed and trivialities blown-up,
How would it seem
To come back and share a meal with me;
With the past and the present haunting us,
With the future daunting us,
How would it seem
My darling friend?
To share a meal with me at the Metropole,
And crack a lobster leg with pincers of stainless steel,
This whole wheeling and dealing,
How would it feel
My darling friend?
Amongst the fish and the crabs
And the lobsters’ limbs
And my special plate of frog’s legs,
How would it feel
My darling friend?
The crows atop the copper roof
Make sounds.
Maybe we can actually claim a discount
Because we did not pay
For the incessant pitter- patter
Of crow’s feet
At the corners of our eyes.
There are goodbyes and there are goodbyes,
But not like this
My darling friend.
And if you say I have to see,
I have to see what will be,
After the rivers have dried
And I have tried,
What will it be with the church-house candle,
In memory what will be lost,
I want to see.
What will be gone, what will come,
What will we say when we meet again?
I want to see, not hear,
I want to see your eyes
When we meet again once more.
For old times, for old songs,
For memories, for memories not to be repeated,
For afternoons in kitchens cooking lunch,
I want to see what will be.
How will it seem
At that point of time to me,
How will it look?
This memory,
How will it look,
This dream?
And if there were a garden near,
I would have taken you there
To think of me.
One more time, to think of me.
It’s nothing but a play of words,
Hidden emotions, guarded passions,
Love is nothing but a play of words
Upon the summer sky;
So beautiful to look at
But not to touch, not to feel,
Not even to say “Hello”.
Because despite all that we do,
The stars will again shine
And hearts will throb when we meet;
Because hearts did throb when we met,
And love will touch the hem
Of our winter cloaks,
As we walk back hand in hand
Once again through the oaks,
Hearts will throb beneath our winter cloaks.
If you were to ask me once again,
I would just say “Yes” once again.
And that’s how it would be
In the backdrop of the willow tree.
That’s how it would be
If you were to ask again.
What storms would bear down upon us,
I would say nothing more.
Not one raindrop, not one flake of snow,
Just you and me between the silver oaks,
Heart-throbs amongst the trees of the forest
Heart-throbs in the spring;
Heart-throbs with the bees, heart-throbs in the water
Heart-throbs as we ring each other’s bells
To announce arrivals.
Because departures are heart-throbs
In the spring.
If you were to shake my hand
And walk away,
That is how I would feel it should be.
If you were to hold my hand
And walk by me in the snow,
That is how I feel it would be.
It is for you to decipher
This language, this feeling that we have,
It is for you to understand,
Because I have already understood.
It is for you to see and feel
How it feels, to touch, to smell
And then say that “This is all right,
This is for sure.”
