[Transcreation] Punctuations

Forced to turn even

the slightest of incoherent grunts

into questions,

perhaps annoyed,

the question mark

stoops and hangs its head



In the heat of

the surprises

that couldn’t be penned,

in the anger

at not being able to read them all,

the exclamation mark

melts in agony



Like a child in the womb

unfazed,

it can recline

and meditate

That explains the sanity

of a semi-colon

even as words crowd around



When they are herded together,

those heavy ones from the past,

to keep them in line,

the quotation signs

could perhaps be

silently praying to the present tense




Perhaps in its inability to tell anyone

that the end is merely a myth,

lies the sorrow of a gloomy full-stop

and the reason

for its shrunken existence





A poem in Malayalam by T.P. Vinod
Transcreation by Vijay © 1st March, 2007