ORIYA  POETRY

 
PRATIBHA SATPATHY
 
 

SO NOW YOU HAVE A PLACE IN HISTORY
 

You had sought a place in history.
Well,you will now exist
in history and nowhere else.
It probably did not occur to you
that once you entered history there was no exit,
you would forever remain
far away from my embrace.
I had always wanted
that you did not turn into history,
that you stayed beside me,
that your eyes accompanied me like stars,
that your midnight whisper caressed me
like a tender word of solace,
that your love played about like a breeze
in my body's universe
spread out like a peacock's feathers.
I had never wanted
my secret life to turn into history.

I have seen history's rock-like silence.
I comprehend
the sadness in time's eyes.
I therefore know there is no way out for you
in history's pages,
there are no steps you can climb
in the dark region of time
you inhabit.

The road will always be without traffic.
Blasts of cold wind will never cease.
There will be darkness everywhere.
God knows how many times you will be dismantled
and reassembled by the useless magic of my thought.

History is an emperor.
It does not know common folk like you and me.
Senseless with the pride of its eternal life,
it tramples upon the soul's longings
uttered in a language without words.
 

Translation:
Ramakanta Rath
 

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SOURINDRA BARIK
 

THE CIRCUS BOY
 

The small boy performs in the circus.
His thin hands and feet
are ant-eaten timber
between living and dying
only an ignoble truce.

Even now in his eyes
the mango grove
of his village,the fairy tales;
in his feet the mad intoxication
of running after butterflies,snapped kites;
but he performs in the circus
controlling his hands and feet
he only performs in the circus.

His laughter, tears and innocent demands
are now sweat on his forehead;
in the emptiness of living
he is only an articulate
a truncated tree in the public park
a burnt-out black grain of rice;
he is crippled time incarnate.

The small boy performs in the circus
in the soft lap of Time
only a victim,a moth-eaten moment.
 

Translation:
Sitakant Mahapatra
 
 

MainDoor
 
 

A Varnamala Visualization