Illustration by Arpan Roy
Religion
At the riverbank,
I was praying to my God, floundering
for our unification.
On the levee across
she was yearning for me
beseeching the God of her own.
The lone boatman
rowing along the river, was
a fellow of a different God.
About My Mother
You got me trapped,
How can I define my mother?
If, was asked about myself
I would tell easily that
the impudent character of
the news you read every morning is me.
The giant metaphor that resides in your poetry, and
keeps gossiping against you is me.
And the crime-hero
being processed through the factory of politics is me.
The illegal businesses of which you never know,
the endless lies that you believe without a trace of doubt,
the eyes of greediness wider than the sky,
the heights of arrogance taller than the Mount Everest,
those stubborn minds that are wholly unaware about liability
and the humanity that keeps laughing sitting on the corpse of feelings,
ALL are me.
You should not have asked, but
as you asked me;
I can tell you
only a sentence that
I was the gentlest person in my life
till I was with my mother.
When you come
Jumping over the edges of my eyes
without invitation
you come closer to me
skip on the terraces of my heart
and hop across the plains of my mind.
I wonder, when did I relinquish
each and every apartment of my feelings to you!
And now, you are occupying it unhesitatingly.
You come flowing inside the breeze invisibly
and return making me wet like rains do.
Sometimes, you come being a dream under sweet slumbers
you create whirlpool from heart to mind, at times.
Whenever you come
in whatever way you come
every time, you return reigning over me
leaving me floundering.
I never get to know
whether it is a joy
or a pain.
Instead,
I would keep caressing
the scratch of your touch,
would keep fondling the unseen bruise
that your lips create on my heart.
Please come,
keep coming in the same way, my love!
if I go insane someday,
be sure, I will take all the blame for that
on myself.
(Translated from Nepali by Suman Pokhrel)
About the Poet
Dhiraj Rai, from Nepal, is a young and emerging poet vigorously contributing his effort to poetry. Some of his works have been published in national literary journals and webzines. And he has been participated and recited his poem in SAARC Literature Festival 2015 organized by Foundation of SAARC Writers and Literature. He would like to call himself a ‘poetry seeker or practitioner’ walking with ‘poetic heart’. He also has keen interest in story writing.
Contact: yakduhang@gmail.com
facebook.com/yakduhang
@yakduhangDhiraj (twitter)
About the Translator
Suman Pokhrel (born on September 21, 1967) is a multilingual Nepali poet, lyricist, translator and an artist. Many of his works have been translated into English and are published and acclaimed internationally. Author of three collections of poems in Nepali, he won the prestigious “SAARC Literary Award” given by the Foundation of SAARC Writers and Literature twice. He is considered as one of the most important creative voices of South Asia. His poems revolve around the nuances of life. The play around his choice of words creates magic in the minds of his readers. English translations of his literary works are widely published in journals and anthologies globally, including Snow Jewel, USA; Life and Legends, USA; Song We Share, South Asia; Sweet and Sour Dreams, South Asia; Global Poetry, Learning & Creativity and in different volumes of Beyond Borders, South Asia; and Art of Being Human, Canada.
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