For my Pall-bearers - Poetry by A. Ayyappan (as translated by Sri Koyamparambath Satchidanandan)

For my Pall-bearers - Poetry by A. Ayyappan (as translated by Sri Koyamparambath Satchidanandan)

For my Pall-bearers

I have to share a secret

which is not in my will

with those who bear my coffin.

There will be a flower

in place of my heart:

a gift from the woman

who taught me love’s religion

in my days of curiosity.

Pluck that flower from my heart

before I am buried .

Cover my face with its petals.

One petal  ,too, for my palm

with its vanished lines.

Through that flower

I long to come back.

I had no time to tell you this truth

the moment before I died ;

it flowed off into death

with the cold  water you offered me.

Or else,

just leave the coffin open,

now that I have befriended the dead.