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ORIYA POETRY
BRAJANATH RATH
THE FALLEN LEAF
O my fallen leaf of pausa
why did you fall
forgetting your cradling
on the green boughs?
Is the kiss of the grey earth
sweeter,dearer
than
the blue embrace of the sky?Last spring
when you came
as a new bride
drenched in shame
wearing a pink saree,
to welcome you
the sweet moaning shehnai of
lakhs of bees echoed;
but
today
when you fall silently
why are these tears of sorrow
in the eyes of pausa ?O fallen leaf,
Pausa's fallen leaf,
what have you left for me:
the embrace of the blue sky
or
the kiss of the grey earth?
Translation:
Sanat Das Patnaik
CHINTAMANI BEHERA
THIRST
Upon your beach
now I stand as an exile
a loving and doleful soul.I have a mind
that's pale and poisoned.
I have a heart
that's torn and bleeding.
I have a conscience
that's complex and bitten.But,my dear,
in the looks of your loving azure eyes
in a single kiss on your passionate cheeks
I shall get back
my primaeval mind,heart and conscience,
and my marine soul.Can you offer me these?
But I hear in your trembling voice
a broken and doleful tune.
They have taken away
by churning,vexing and plundering
they have pinched away
the fragrance of your rich elegance.
Well, let them take these away.
Let them appear bright and godly
in your illumination.I am a lover of ugliness,
of scandal and lethal poison.
I am a mysterious adept
of death and graveyard,
of all-devouring Time.
In your drinking bowl
if you have left the lees
of stain,scandal and venom,
give these to me, I pray
give me now.
I want to drain away from your cheeks
all that's insinuating
sinful and venomous.In my nerves and veins
in each drop of my blood
for you only
my thirst:
quenched and unquenched.My darling,
just in one kiss only
I shall dry up
all the agony
of your briny soul.
Translation:
Rajkishore Mishra
DILIP DAS
THE GRAVE
Beloved,
set me free...
to relish freedom
that is in the grave.If life means only pain
it's not bad,
if life is only an ominous dream
not bad
if life is only a battle.In the stream of time
decimal by decimal
life devalues into an effect
a brass coin
and life means
the penance of a lifeless mountain
with uplifted hands
that touch the limitless sky.Then,o beloved,
is not life suicidal?
I hate suicide
but I want freedom.Beloved,
set me free...
to get such freedom in the grave
after the fulfilled copulation
with you
poised in urdhwapada.
Translation:
Sanat Das Patnaik
A Varnamala Visualization