Now tell me, where should I go?
It is evening; travelling the country roads,
I am lost in the woods where it is already dark.
All I can see is just a few yards beyond my sight,
And then it disappears into the dark.
The soles of my feet are still burning,
My tendons torn and weary.
Walking all the way through the summer day,
I stumble and wish to rest beneath a tree
That bears nothing but naked branches.
The hands I held have disappeared;
Promises remain futile and unfulfilled.
Parting for separate paths, I am left with the void.
A long way I have walked, humming the songs
That speak of the eternal truths.
The noises from the dark frighten me
I wish I could close my eyes for a while
And stretch my feet across the fallen leaves,
But what if a wild creature hidden in the woods
Should leap upon me and feed its hunger?
The sweet voices of the morn have gone;
The whistling of the eagles has disappeared.
Upon the skies, the colours have faded,
And dense darkness spreads across the horizon.
Alas, the night is not far away.
There is still a long way before it is time to sleep.
Perhaps I can walk as far as these worn feet will bear,
And then sleep until another morn, when I awake
To a world illumined by His majestic rays,
Remembering nothing of the journey gone by.
I could make my tomb beneath these trees,
And decorate it with the yellow leaves,
Covered by the wet soil, breathing in the earth,
Then fall into a deep and endless slumber
From which I would never wake again.
O travellers journeying towards the dusk,
Stop by the wayside, if you can; deep beneath the soil
Rests a man who left unfinished the journey he yearned for.
Listen, the newborn leaves of the age-old tree
Still tremble with the hymns of an unfinished poem.
Preeth Padmanabhan Nambiar
