दीमकें

दीमकों को
पढ़ना नहीं आता

वे चाट जाती हैं
पूरी
क़िताब

---नरेश सक्सेना

You Learn

After a while you learn the subtle difference
Between holding a hand and chaining a soul,

And you learn that love doesn’t mean leaning
And company doesn’t mean security.

And you begin to learn that kisses aren’t contracts
And presents aren’t promises,

And you begin to accept your defeats
With your head up and your eyes open
With the grace of a woman, not the grief of a child,

And you learn to build all your roads on today
Because tomorrow’s ground is too uncertain for plans
And futures have a way of falling down in mid-flight.

After a while you learn…
That even sunshine burns if you get too much.

So you plant your garden and decorate your own soul,
Instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.

And you learn that you really can endure…
That you really are strong
And you really do have worth…
And you learn and learn…With every good-bye you learn..

--- Jorge Luis Borges

They’ve taken us prisoner

They’ve taken us prisoner,
they’ve locked us up:
me inside the walls
you outside

But that’s nothing.
The worst
is when people—knowingly or not—
carry prison inside themselves . . .
Most people have been forced to do this,
honest, hard-working, good people
who deserve to be loved much as I love you

–-- Nazim Hikmet, 

Excerpt from, 9-10pm. Poems. Translated from Turkish by Randy Blasing and Mutlu Konuk