Ghatu-XXIV
(Shark-Hunters)

1

Even the wise confounded got
and heroes lost their wits-
Those who went out to face the sea,
were caught by current's plot;
Of "Ebb and tide", they all forgot
what they had learnt before.

2

A power weird is in Kalach,
lost is who enters there;
No one brings news who does ens'nare
the nets and keeps them down.

3

To Kalachi but yesterday
brave men went forth with spears;
Late were the brothers...none returned,
nought more of them one hears.
Whirlpools have swallowed them one fears-
the fishers all are dead.

4

Where fishers used to seek the fish,
the barren sand-dunes lie;
Fish-sellers ruined, the river dry;
and tax collector gone

5

Had they been near, they would have come;
perchance too far they got-
Fisher folk saw their haunts, called out
to know about their lot...
Alas, resonse received they not
and sadly they returned.-

6

The bazar is without fish-smell,
while market formerly
With small carps, and with herrings too
abundantly did swell.
Now there is not a shrimp to sell
buyers have empty hands.

7

You throw the nets in creeks...not so
the sharks are ever killed;
Possess strong sweep nets that you throw
in deepest sea below;-
Sharks not to shallow waters go,
and depths are far ahead.

8

To enter sea, prepare your ropes;
strengthen them bit by bit-
-Relationship do not befit
Kalachi fishermen!

9
Shark hunter's 'moob', that is the way
a victory to reap-
Their eagerness for whirlpools, and
their longing for the deep,
Deprives them every night of sleep-
they yearn to kill the shark.

10

In search, they into whirlpools got
and to fathomlessness...
They killed the shark; with hapiness
now beam fishermen's eyes.
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