'The Source of the Sky' by Bhanuji Rao

Translated by Sailen Routray

 Chinese Painting - 'Green Peaks under Clear Sky: After Huang Gongwang
Artist - Wang Yuanqui (1642 - 1715)
Photo Credit - Wikimedia Commons

You stood here today. There is no horizon here. Only the dense darkness of the sky pitched like a tent. You loved the blue. I was standing then, in the dark. You had not cried yet. The dyke inside your heart, about to break, did not. Darkness laced in the sky like a swarm of witches. A strange longing in the depth of my blood. Like a huddle of excited flightless birds. 

My body stretched on a bed of cool grass. Memory rains like the light from a firefly. Can you strip my body of its shame? Can you open the cage of my ribs to release the pain so that it can wonder at will?

Note: This is a translation of the Odia poem 'Akasara Uschha' by Bhanuji Rao. Unlike the free verse of the original, the form used here in English is that of a prose poem. The Odia poem has been taken from the second edition of the volume titled 'Bisaada eka Rutu' - 'Dejection is a Season', published in 1995 in Cuttack by Kahani Prakashan. The first edition of the book was printed in 1973.  

Bhanuji Rao (1926 - 2001) was an Odia poet born in Cuttack. He worked as a journalist and teacher, working as a language instructor at LBS National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie, for seventeen years. His work as a poet (along with that of other pioneers such as Guruprasad Mohanty) was crucial in the transformation of Odia poetry in the post-independence period. He was quite belatedly honoured with the central Sahitya Akademi award for his collection 'Nai Aarapaari' - 'On the Other Shore' in 1989. He was the grandson of famous Odia poet Madhusudan Rao, and never married. 

Copyright of the English translation rests with the translator.