From:
Shouldn't I stand dumb in silence at the Ekushey Minar?
Muhammad Habibur Rahman
Twenty-first February this year
I have got no promise to make.
I have got no vow to take
For all these years
The promises that I made every year
The vows that I took every year
Remain unattended and unfulfilled.
All my efforts came to naught
All were cries in the wilderness
Exercises in futilityLike the dreams of a dumb person.
Before liberation
We thought that these vows
Would inspire us.Didn't they inspire?
Perhaps they did
After liberationI cannot meet these questions anymore
Face to face.
After liberation
If I go to power I will fulfill my promises.
After forming the governmentI said these were very hard promises
And could not be fulfilled in one term
When you go to power
You get forgetful
And often suffer from dementia
Great intentions become small and smaller
And then forgotten
And turn annoyingly
Meaningless and purposeless
Broken promises do pile up
On twenty-six March
We took vows to build
An exploitation-free society.
On the sixteenth December
We take vows to build
A secular society
Our vows steal the headlines
Of the following day's newspapers
Flashed in bold letters
And sometimes in red ones
Twenty-first February this year
I have got no promise to make.
I have got no vow to take.
For all my vows that are dead long ago I shall stand dumb in silence
Barefooted
With my head hanging down
For honoring all my unfulfilled promises
For all my past vows that are dead long ago.
Twenty-first February this year
Shouldn't I stand dumb in silence at the Ekushey Minar?
(Muhammad Habibur Rahman is former Chief Justice of Bangladesh and former Chief Adviser, Caretaker Government.)
