My Childhood Waits : Nisar Azam

My Childhood Waits 

Nisar Azam 

There is a village, wrapped in mist,

Where dawn still wears a jasmine twist.

A siren village, soft and slow,

Where time forgets the need to go.

There, Nallah Humal hums a tune,

Beneath the lazy eye of moon.

Its waters knew my first small leap,

Its banks still guard the dreams I keep.

The poplar trees, like sentinels,

Whisper my name in secret spells.

And every stone, and every bend,

Remembers me, not just as friend,

But as a part of earth and air

A barefoot boy who once lived there.

I left, they say, to chase the sun,

But all the while, my soul’s undone.

For I have grown, yet not outgrown

The fields where I was once full-grown.

There’s an old swing tied to a tree,

Still swaying with the ghost of me.

And someone calls, but not aloud

Perhaps the wind, perhaps a cloud.

O siren village, wild and wide,

You live where all lost things abide.

And in your arms, by stream and pine,

My childhood waits, still wholly mine.

(Nallah Humal : A stream flowing from the mighty Kajinag throughout the expanse of Rafiabad) 

(Nisar Azam is a well-known Kashmiri poet, writer, and translator. He is the author of Patti Leji Zoon Daras and translator of significant literary works, he has contributed to bringing diverse voices across languages. A recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar (2011), he has also worked in cinema as a dialogue writer and director.)