Topshe Fish with Eggs
By Ishwar Gupta
Translated By Arvind Krishna Mehrotra & Rosinka Chaudhuri
Though not a bird, you have attractive wings.
Your every limb is juicy, sweet.
Your flavour, once it fills the mouth,
makes other food taste like goo.
Cleaning you, scrubbing the scales, takes a while.
Can I have you raw? Right now, please?
To behold you is to forget even the son who’s died.
A whiff of you is a whole meal.
I buy you fresh, twenty at a time.
And eat you fast, deep fried in hot oil.
Translated from the Bengali
Notes:
Source: Poetry (May 2022)