Classic Poem

O my fallen leaf of pausa
why did you fall
forgetting your cradling
on the green boughs ?
Is the kiss of the grey earth
sweeter, dearer
than
the blue embrace of the sky ?

Last spring
when you came
as a new bride
drenched in shame
wearing a pink saree,
to welcome you
the sweet moaning shehnai of
lakhs of bees echoed;
but
today
when you fall silently
why are these tears of sorrow
in the eyes of pausa ?

O fallen leaf,
Pausa's fallen leaf,
what have you left for me :
the embrace of the blue sky
or
the kiss of the grey earth ?

[Translated by Sanat Das Patnaik ]