Srinagar, Feb. 16 -- DESPATCH-I

WAILS OF THE VALE

(Transcription of a small poem,from the writer's kashmiri opera,Gatte Patte Gaash; Written in 1991: ADDRESSED TO ALL READERS)

Who

Axed our Chinars

And harpooned

The temple-ponds;

Blistered with bile

My liver asks

Who spilled blood?

On my verdure;

Boils abound

The Pine-wood breast

Yet the pain

Would subside if,

My hand could find

A place to sooth.

With dust of aeons

Settled on glass

And hands of clock

Forgotten somewhere;

Numberless islands

Have erupted

In the Jhelum;

As unfamiliar breath

Separates

The mates of age,

Beds freeze at night

As winter loneliness

Creeps;

Wrinkled countenance

And hands shiver;

Time has embarked

On the wild-run;

Flight of crows

Ra...