WHAT IS LEFT IS ONLY A NAME AS HERITAGE

WHAT IS LEFT IS ONLY A NAME AS HERITAGE

This is a journey shore-to-shore

and passing feet

of yesterday and moments ago
having left no prints.

Ask the spray and waves breaking ashore
or is it etched on rounded stones?
Ask the birds in flight
or is it carved on the pines?

What is left
but the traveler’s name
recorded nowhere.

MAHAYA MOHD YASSIN, Malaysia.
Translation Zawiah Yahya – Stanley Barkan