A Weekend Journey
The book of the road
Opens page by page
Nightfall
It's just started snowing
Silently on the motorway
The coach driver's wearing a turban again
(The first time for years)
The furrows on his forehead
Have tangled his arms and feet
Silently his Asian
Passengers watch the snow falling
In the flash of the headlights.
The white-haired woman wonders
and says to herself —
It's snowing outside
The pregnant young woman thinks
and says to herself —
It's snowing outside
The boy with the beautiful plaited hair thinks
and says to himself —
It's snowing outside
It's snowing outside
Silently in the dark
On the motorway
The coach is heading homeward.
The book of the road
Closes page by page.
Amarjit Chandan translated by Amin Mughal and John Welch