Our Globe is all covered with ice - All year long she is covered with ice - As if there is no spring and no summer. So slippery is the Globe’s garment, People often fall and hit on the ice. All is iced on the Globe, all is iced - All year long all is covered with ice. All is iced, all is iced, all is iced - All year long all is covered with ice. One may fly all around the Globe, Even without contact with the ground - Anyway he is sure to drop On a slippery level or slope - To be crushed underfoot he is bound. All is iced on the Globe, all is iced - All year long all is covered with ice. All is iced, all is iced, all is iced - All year long all is covered with ice. There is nothing but ice like sheet glass, But it’s not like a kids’ rink for skating. Perhaps a beast will be able to pass... All is iced! and a two-legged one must Sink on all his four limbs - no escaping. All is iced on the Globe, all is iced - All year long all is covered with ice. All is iced, all is iced, all is iced - All year long all is covered with ice.
© Akbar Muhammad. Translation, 2014
(akbarmuhammad.awardspace.co.uk)
[Adapted from Alec Vagapov’s “The Icy World”.]