Standing near a Mirror

Ashok Mehta

(Translated from Maithili by Ayodhyanath Choudhary)

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Seeing you sit silently,
my eyes
got stuck,  looking
at your countenance.

Eyes lined with soot
inside them
rested a waiting
a desire too
As I had eyed that moment.

The slow-trembling lips
a smiling rose above them
the inner part of the left lip
pressed under  your teeth
were all I could see at the moment.

I guessed that
with my arrival
your cheeks and forehead
had perspired scantily
as if some tiny drops had fallen
on a lotus leaf.

I had wished
the lids of your eyes
which were lowering
like peepal  leaves
remained suspended up there
for a moment
and I felt like
I was standing near a mirror.
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