[Translation] Believe it or not

Beware of words
Each word, sharpened
in cold merciless events
They twist, they turn,
scratch, then slice the heart
In the age when “Father and daughter”,
no more sounds innocuous, innocent
and a thousand repetitions
clothes a lie in truthful hues,
like one and one never adding unto two,
nothing is right.

It doesn’t prep up for rains anymore
doesn’t boil in scorching sun
doesn’t smile during spring either
Yet, I too have a face,
one which dissolves in water,
and which the mirror shatters
into a thousand pieces.

A poem in Malayalam by Zubair
Translation by Vijay © 17th March, 2006