The One-Eyed Town
Translated by Sampurna Cbattarji from the Hindi original 'Kaano ki ek nagri dekhi'
I came upon a one-eyed town Jam-packed with just One-Eyes,
On one hand they were crazy On the other shrewd and wise.
In that one-eyed town I found The rituals were so strange,
Sickness flourished in strange places Strange cures remained unchanged.
Their rivers flowed on bridges And trains ran on water not land,
On bushy tails of apes there grew Thick grapes in bunches grand.
Umbrella in hand, on moonlit nights, They’d go out and say ‘Oh my!
The dew is falling down it seems And breaking our heads from high.’
When the mice would bell themselves And go chasing after the cat On empty bellies they’d drum their hands And sing qawallis just like that.
‘In the land of the blind the one-eyed man Is king,’ they say, but it’s untrue,
Go see for yourself—in the one-eyed town Reigns a blind king—I swear to you.