LEAVES IN TRANCE

LEAVES IN TRANCE
by Sivadas Purameri

Translation K T Dinesh

When December
With its faltering
Finger tips
Touches the boughs
Roots say,
''It's chill in the sky,
The leaves are in trance,
And we,
Mere pilgrims of darkness.

Colours,
Glossy glistening
Of the dawn,
Blooms and pollen
Are on the boughs alone.
We are here deep down
Groping in darkness”.
Hearing the anguish
Of the roots
The tree trunk says,
'The leaves on which
The seasons rejoice
Are like butterflies
Flapping their wings
In fleeting existence.
How fast they fall pale!
Then we ourselves
Take them in as compost.
If we look in we can see
Many a scrap of half-dead
Reverie of the leaves.
Death will ensue this chill
As baking summer.
Let the leaves pray
Till they fall.

This is the sequel
Of the life of a tree.
The roots are ever
A mystery to the trees.
To script the hues
Of the soil onto the sky
Put forth your fingers
Into the depths of the earth."