Whenever he runs into me
The stink envelopes me even before.
Embalming his skin with earth
He enters like clay sundered by the wintry wind
With a basket of dung over head.
He infuses the life into the awaiting plants
Combing and caressing the roots.
Greeting with his looks
He teaches words to the sprouting twigs in silence.
Doctoring the infested and the diseased
He bathes the Banana saplings
Like new born babies
Standing them in order of school children.
Taking the charity of his labour
And relishing the music of his crooning
The tap roots transform to milky-ways.
‘Been sun-burnt the whole day
Sweat and soil disconcerting,
He asks for water becoming a bowl of thirst.
Bringing it in a dazzling steel vessel, I demur.
Reading the essence of my actions
He drinks his thirst out cupping his hands
And throws at me a smiling glance.
I sink my head to that look
Which bears the aeonian nobility and forgiveness.
He walks away…
Like a colossus
Straight and upright.

Original: Aduri Satyavathi Devi (Telugu)
Translated By: Nauduri Murthy