HOUSE BY THE MILL 
A woman addresses the nation, 
What big ears she 
Has. The fabulous Red Riding-Hoods 
In gladed wood 
Burn flare-ups, but freedom's too prudent 
To risk its skin. 
O house by the mill we're trapped in. 
  
  

BHOJPURI DESCANT 

I 
Piss after dinner, 
Sleep on your left side: 
You'll never fall sick. 

II 
If landlords are saints, 
Pestles are bowstrings. 

III 
Witty landlords, 
Wheezy thieves: 
Lynch them. 

IV 
A servant who knows 
The secrets of the house, 
A pretty wife, 
Spetched clothes, 
A wicked king: 
They need careful handling. 

V 
A shoe that pinches, 
A sharp-tongued wife, 
The first-born a daughter 
An unproductive farm, 
A duncish brother: 
They cause endless grief. 

VI 
A brown she-elephant, 
A bald wife, 
Rain in winter: 
Signs of luck. 

VII 
Three oxen, two wives: 
Death's at your doorstep. 

VIII 
A spendthrift son, 
A cross-eyed buffalo, 
A moody ox: 
Get rid of them at once. 

IX 
An ox with six teeth 
Will quickly change hands, 
An ox with seven 
Will butt its owner, 
An ox with nine 
Will rush in nine directions 
And won't spare even the family priest. 

X 
To inspect the teeth 
Of a skewbald ox 
Is a waste of time. 

XI 
The thin-tailed ox 
With reindeer's piss 
Brings prosperity. 

XII 
The blue-flanked ox 
With purple horns 
Can't be wrong. 

XIII 
One plough is death, 
Two's survival, 
Three's good business, 
Four's a kingdom. 

XIV 
A wise farmer does his own tilling, 
The one less wise walks beside his team, 
But the farmer who goes looking for tillmen 
Forfeits his seed. 

XV 
A small ploughshare 
Tickles the field. 

XVI 
A kite's screech from atop a ruin: 
Sign of rain. 

XVII 
A chameleon 
Scrambles up the bole 
Tail-first: 
Expect a flood. 

XVIII 
Clouds throughout the day, 
A clear sky at night: 
Famine. 

XIX 
The clouds from the west are misers. 

(After Ghagha) 
 
 
Arvind Krishna Mehrotra
[ http://www.geocities.com/varnamala/arvind.html ]





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