ORIYA POETRY

 
GAJANAN MISHRA
 

SO LATE AT NIGHT
 

Why should someone arrive
so late at night?
Nothing to worry, dear,
Sleep for another hour.

One who always wanted to leave
at last flew away
in the right direction.
Tell him to present himself
whenever I wish.

When you get tired
of making the wooden puppets dance,
and sit down under the shadow
of the leafless neem tree,
I will stand up
and announce:
I am here,
alone.
 
 

Translation:
Ganeswar Mishra

---

 
 

MANOJ KUMAR MEHER
 
 

BIRD
 

The other day we divided our mother
Chhotu claimed seven months
And I took five.

Though the slave of summer and rain
Destroys the bird's home,
Though winter's silent lover
Lays out the dead morning,
Alas!
A bird
Ties the voice of relationship
Holds back tears,
Does not plunder anyone's beauty
Nor squanders anyone's happiness
Does not pile burning coals
On some happy family
At times keeps flying high in the mind's sky
And at others in the deep depths of the soul

Neither any bloodshed for mother
Nor stabbings for wealth
Alas!
A bird goes on singing
For its lost lover.

That day
We lit father's funeral pyre
Chhotu took the plot of land
And I the house,
That very day we divided our mother.
 

Translation:
Jayanta Mahapatra
 

---

MainDoor
 
 
 

A Varnamala Visualization