The Winter

a poem by Sreekanthkopuri

At the year end you come to see me.
I spend all the season in your sweet bosom,
dreaming many things sleeping in your lap.
Your charming bleakness everywhere around me.
You are the most queenly of all seasons,
coming into my lonely room through
the grills of the window of my heart
casting a magic spell.
Early morn you saunter before me
with silvery divine smoke from cities of heaven
like a young beauty queen in a palace.
You took my pen to pendown for yourself
these immortal verses
my heart sings for you.
Oh dear! at your dawn I see a tear
at the tip of a leaf you shed at your parting me.
God created you so beautiful but for whom?
Oh dear, in the mornings I watch your beauty everywhere-
on the tender leaves,
in the green woods,
on the path,
in the sky,
making the creation drowsily beautiful.
This is my sacred and purest empathy with you.
Dear winter you are sweeter than wild honey.
I love you dearly for you have demanded a finest place in my heart.
My idylls with you sweet,
my chats with you pleasant,
my encounters with you inexplicable,
will you sleep in my heart forever?