- by ManoharRai Sardessai
The son has come back home,
The cottage’s half-door kept shaking,
The mango tree leaves murmured,
The coconut tree kept happily dangling.
Moti the dog straightened its tail,
The banana tree, its leaves curled up.
From the trash at the tamarind tree root
The cock its neck moved up.
The son has come back home,
The cotton pods laughed openly,
A couple of stars came falling down
From the top of the onvllam tree.
The father’s hair has gone grey,
The mother’s eyes are slumbering on,
The sisters grown and wears kapodd
The front doorstep is worn.
The rice ears are withered,
The bamboo on the roof has rotten,
Without love and watering
The mhoxing’s creepers are gone.
The son has come back home,
The house was filled with new glee,
With the weight of that delight enthused
The leaflings of the small coconut tree.
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(Ailo Cholo /‘The Return of the Son’ translated from the Konkani original by Jorge de Abreu Noronha. Published in My Song by ManoharRai SarDessai, New Age Printers: Verna, Goa, 2008)
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