Poems
Usha Sherchan
I AM SEARCHING JUST STEEP STEEP
A shrilly evening,
Jingling intoxication of death
Brandy…!
Whisky…!!
Rum…!!!
Slow poison…!!!!
Unbent self respect
Emptying the bottles
Thirst is still there
Chowmin, momo, chicken curry, cutlet
Rolling eyes of vulture
Throughout the restaurant
Little intoxication
Little turmoil
Little impertinent
A brim-full wine
A puff and smoke o hemp
No rejoice without being sleepy
An unsuccessful trial for tranquility
Destroying my own palace of dreams
Plucking my own flower of desires
Don't know why
My liking of cactus nowadays
Don't know why
My liking of deserted place nowadays
Just after a gulp of drink
Kicking my own city of dreams
Trampling my own garden of dreams
Salute to this ugly life
Salute to this ugly future
These days I am loitering
Without aim, without intention
These days I am blooming without desire
Alas!
How easily I am cheating myself
How easily I am breaking myself
Carrying intoxication of the restaurant in my eyes
Carrying turmoil of the restaurant in my heart
I am pushing myself from the solitary steep
I am throwing myself from the deserted steep
I've seen the dreams for nothing in the dam of unfriendliness
I've woven the desires too for nothing in the net of nothingness
Now you all can declare me,
A mad in this prison house
A lunatic too in this prison
I can't leave this place
Neither can I forget
Nor I can remember myself
I am searching just steep
I am waiting just a death.
Translated by
Dr. Banira Giri
LIFE IN THE BEGGING BOWL OF DEATH
Emptiness...emptiness…ultimate
Emptiness
In a gigantic cage
Locked vehicles keep rolling
Transporting empty passengers
Transporting empty breasts
In the silence one hears wails
And sobs
Covered volcanoes
In the emptiness, lives and
Deaths
Become accursed
Lives are making merry
Deaths are joking and jesting
From close up all re-examine the
Other
Carrying pathetic laughter
Piercing with frightful cries
From the space between fingers
Pitiful-life peeks out
Death peeks out as well
In a voice that breaks in unison
From the gutter
Life also flows
Life also flows
Voices cry in unison
Voices slice time
Perform an operation
Don't get in a frenzy to kill the
Foetus
Before ray of hope get to shine
Don't get in a rage to set the dam
Before tides of emotion get to
Flow
Allow life to play without thought
For propriety
Shattering the long emptiness
Breaking the long silence
Allow life to play without for propriety
Shattering the long emptiness
Breaking the long silence
Allow life to turn over
Allow life to gain new dimensions
To make anticipation rest
The nerves have begun tingling
Insensibility has begun to take hold
Play with such forces that all the
Strings break
Don't let life get intoxicated
Sing with such power that the
Raga breaks
Don't let life become insensible
Don't let emptiness quash
Don't let silence prickle
Colours of life by playing
The strings of a guitar
Break the emotions by rubbing
The sharp strings of a sitar
So that all becomes bloody
Make life awake from the dream
Realms
With the piercing of instrument
Strings
Come, demolish the emptiness
Awakening from a dream
Oh! Who's trying to break
Through again
These soft waves
Oh! Why are they laughing again
These frightful deaths
Looks! Those who plot to take life
By tricking it into laughter
Look! Those who plan to tale
Life
By flirting with life
Look! Those who think of taking
Life
By playing with life
There….look
There…look
Death just sauntered by
Leaving behind anticipation
Death just turned away
Taking with it sweet hope.
Translated by
Manjushree Thapa
Sharadha Sharma
DISINTRODUCTION STEEP
Once there was a time
when we sang our song together,
One identical tune.
There was no knowing when our journey started
but we traveled together to the road's divide.
In the course of time
our tune was pressed into oblivion,
our words were stored in unrecollection,
Memory itself lapsed into shapelessness.
But one vague melody awoke in the back of my heart.
Deep inside
a raga heavy with love awoke.
No matter what its content would be,
up to that junction we felt the same feeling.
In the strong current of time
our roads divided,
our directions diverged.
slowly, slowly
our song started to pulse in our throats in two
different settings,
our melody began to alter itself
outside our notice.
The meter went on evolving;
from the same evidence
our meanings split into two different stories.
Very far
from the source of our common music
in the countless divisions of our journeys
I used to search out the common meaning.
I used to look for you
but I have not been able to find another junction
like the one that divided us.
In the same sky
The breath of your sigh flows in one direction
while mine flies in another.
The pain of our disintroduction
these many years
we are trying to search out in each other's eyes,
one old division is already left behind
and, there, one abandoned song
circles in confusion.
We are searching for each other.
Translated by
Manjul & Richard Duffer
WAR REPERCUSSION
In the aftermath of war
enclosing the future of the era in their small fists
our young children lay asleep
fatigued, in this crowd
Do not set fire at their sides
in the remnants of the fiend
lest the spirit of faith gets burnt too
The tears caught in their lashes
haven't dried as yet
Deep patches of devastation
evidently running down their cheeks
Troubled in sleep
they make sorrowful murmurs
Their mothers, who set out in hope of a dawn
did not return despite reassurances
sisters, brothers and fathers did not return
They had nightmares through the hours of darkness
those eyes, that should have had bright beautiful dreams
about flowers, butterflies and rainbows
instead
saw mountains coming down
saw the roof getting lifted from their heads
and their homes destroyed
They had shouted slogans of revolution along with us
comprehending in parts, the meanings
Excitedly adding their childish voices
to the war song
resonating in this turn
These small, supple
hands and feet
spiritedly lifted in revolt
are hurt at this time
If they mumble in pain
if they get scared and wake up in the night
if they cry
hold their hands and comfort them
The responsibility of affection remains divided on our shoulders now
It's time we start to put together their dreams
Tomorrow morning
when they open their eyes
they should not feel the barrenness of affections
they should not find their ways blocked
Tomorrow's dawn should be close by
filled with all colors of creation, brightness and possibilities
there, in front of them
acceptable,
just a touch, a kiss away
There should be an eternal smile on their lips
From tomorrow
their sleep
should be free of disturbances
not spoilt with terror
It's up to us to create a new foundation
It's time we start
to melt away the walls of obscurity
from their paths
To erase the insecurity
clouding their eyes
Translated by
Aparajita Acharya
DREAMS
You, I
and
the feel of our warm chests
beating with desires
Our dreams got devastated once
why lose heart?
Dreams can be woven again
after every eclipse the burnt out moon
slowly re-emerges with time, in dim colors
a full moon will come into view again
rainbows will come out
in a bright, clear sky
Again
in white cotton like fractions of clouds
our flowered dreams
will start to unfold in a hundred petals…
In a devastating stance
all identities shook to ruin
everything got eroded
many endearing episodes got
buried, washed away and ended
wounded, unarmed and exposed
you and I
in front of us remains the wrecked road
why lose heart?
pushing aside the rocks and earth
Crawling
unhurried, we'll go till wherever we can reach
There's nothing that needs to be won in haste
nothing that would fade away if we lose
From this point onwards
lets re-begin the journey
resembling
a devotee entering a temple
a lover melted in love
a creator merging in the folds of creation
a believer disappearing in an eternal prayer
Lets start again
a bondless worship; a complete surrender
As long as life remains
in whatever guise
it is a blessing
Come along,
keeping aside the meaningless questions
of why so and how not
Wipe your tears
the best incidence of creation -life
is in front of us
that's why
nothing is charm less
nothing is insignificant
nothing is devoid of possibilities
Us, amidst this desolate backdrop
the first woman and man of creation
You are here
I am here
we can sow many beginnings
we have our eternal wishes
a future, and a whole lot of dreams…
Translated by
Aparajita Acharya
Momila
SUFFERING: INSIDE THE BRACKETS
Every single night
Light
Passes away by me
But,
The light
Does not remain with me.
Every single morning
Before the enlightening of
Hopes into my eyes, if
It collapses
Because
My eyes
Invite tears of rains.
Every nightmarish dusk
A hooligan-crowd wraps me
With a bundle of clothes
But,
I do not remain with me.
Colors scatter
Into my darkness nut,
There portrays not a single
Portrait.
Colors
Transcreat itself
Into yellowish absurdity, with
Me – myself
And
No relationships relate with me
In the high voltage brightness of
Someone else,
Just like an accursed rock
A wounded Ahalya [1]
The shattered shadow
I'm lying stone-death
Somewhere here.
This moment
In the mountain of
Lost illusion
I,
Being the interrogation of
Relative totality
Am learning against the wall of
Forgotten existence.
Translated by
Kumar
[1] Ahalya- a mythological Hindu woman known for her devotional love who turned into rock waiting for her lover.
A FLOWERY IMAGE
From a void
A flowery image has fallen
Upon a village of stone.
The distance between
Flower and thorn
Being so near yet so far and quiet
On the same bed.
Like a Greek civilization
At the moment of your blooming
Reminiscing your debonair smile amidst the thorn
I just forgot to pray the God.
Innumerable tears you hide!
Your image into the broken mirror
Like love
Is reflecting much beautifully
Whether you eclipse from eyes
Being fade away from the heavy Sun
What a mad I become of
To recognize you even in the dark.
Eyes playing hide & seek with a flower
A sad thing.
From here will start
The upcoming pretty faults.
Translated by
Kumar
INTERIOR NOSTALGIA
Every morning
Illogically
I become a prisoner of my dreams. But;
I do not deserve to be understood a criminal
Into the eyes.
Now I am taking a flight
Eclipsing from the interrogating eyes
Towards a faraway land of my own psyche
Where,
A graveyard of my memories
Would not be discovered.
I am feeling
In this hour
From a closed lips of rose
Omniform smell of sorrows
Are spreading
Perhaps
Similarly a man's conscience
Would have already been semi-fossilized
Into the blackhole of his own mind like Birupaksha.
Into the Nostalgia!
Life, really is
Much worth living.
Translated by
Kumar
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