The silly dream lambasted me With a big truncheon. I seemed in it quite vague to be, And quite unsightly. While sleeping, I betrayed and lied, And ofttimes bowed... I never had a thought that I Could fall so low! I hammered foes with my fists, And did it madly, But it was just a kind of twist, My hands were flabby. Confused and muzzy, from the dream I would arouse, But then my eyes would grow dim, And I would drowse. I walked not fast, but dragged my feet On the beaten road, And I thought not of leaving it, To find my own. I truckled and crouched to the strong, Stooped to the wayward. I knew that all I did was wrong, But lingered waking. It’s rubbish! half asleep, I heard My own murmur. But it was me, in fact, who’ve gotten This dream, not someone. When I came round, I discerned My murmur’s meaning. I opened my eyes, and though it hurt, It was relieving. The dream dissolved - and yet it seems To be still goading: It, maybe, wasn’t a usual dream, But a foreboding. It gives me shakes as I ought to Take a decision: What was untrue and what was true In this strange vision. It’s great if it was just a sign, A timely omen, But what if in this dream of mine I was clairvoyant? Can what I dreamed tonight reflect My thoughts? I doubt it! But when I come to recollect, I get dumbfounded. And if it turns out that they judge, “He knew all fully!” - I’ll feel disgust just as that night When I deluded. Or, it’ll be proved that death in fire - Beyond my power - I’ll be ashamed just as that night When I was coward. Or, I’ll be told, “Sing on the beam - You’ll be in clover!” - It’ll also show that my strange dream Was a real forecast.
© Akbar Muhammad. Translation, 2015
(akbarmuhammad.awardspace.co.uk)
[Adapted from translations by other translators:
Sergey Roy’s “A Stupid Dream”,
Alec Vagapov’s “The Silly Dream”.]