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The Old Woodman English Abol Tabol Poem of Sukumar Roy |
THE OLD WOODMAN By Sukumar Roy (English Translation by Satyajit Ray)
The old man doesn't seem to mind The sun that’s getting hotter He hums a tune and mumbles words He sits and licks a wooden stick That's just been boiled in water And shakes his balding head; It seems as if he's twice as wise As anybody dead.
"The holes you find in wood," he says "Have reason to be there; They're caused – and no one knows this yet – By cobwebs in the air. But who cares for all this knowledge?" Screams the old man fuming. A bunch of dolts – that's what they are, Pretending and presuming. I've told them time and time again, They haven't understood, What moonless nights are apt to do The holes that go with wood.” Graphs and charts and formulas He scribbles on the wall, Subdividing different types of wood And analysing all. Tasty wood and tangy wood And wood that's hard to savour, And all that lies concealed in holes And all the hidden flavour. He claps the wooden sticks together Saying “these are sticks Which hold no secret from me now that I know all their tricks. A 11 the wooden villainy, and All the wooden wiles, Wooden ills and wooden woes, and Beaming wooden smiles. Some wood is wise and some is not, But holes are always there, And only I can see they're caused By cobwebs in the air." |
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