The Black Sheep
Bharat Majhi
Translated by Sailen Routray
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| Photo Credit - Wikimedia Commons |
Agreed, that everything was just my dream.
I had wanted
that all the
beautiful girls in the world
should
understand poetry;
That the letters of mothers be auctioned
for millions of dollars;
that flowers be completely careless
about either the storms or the rains;
that famines be tolerable;
like the legendary tolerability
That the letters of mothers be auctioned
for millions of dollars;
that flowers be completely careless
about either the storms or the rains;
that famines be tolerable;
like the legendary tolerability
of sorrow in dreams,
may hills be worshipped
may hills be worshipped
and
not shaligrams;
agreed, that everything was
just my dream.
Whose dying harvest could I have salvaged?
For whom could I have set
a
ladder till the heavens?
With all my useless ineptitude,
With all my useless ineptitude,
which birds could I have
taught
the science of flying away with the net?
the science of flying away with the net?
But I know for sure,
that no one has the guts
that no one has the guts
to
listen to my dreams breathe.
Because I am the black sheep
Because I am the black sheep
of the lineage that rarely sleeps.
Note: The poet Bharat Majhi (born in 1972 in Kalahandi) works in an Odia media house in Bhubaneswar. He has published nine volumes of poems in a poetic career spanning more than three decades. Amongst other recognition, he has won the Bhubaneswar Book Fair Award in 2008 and the Sanskriti Award in 2004.
Baah.. Kudos Sailen.. what a beautiful dream and what brilliant breath in translation..
ReplyDeletePranam. The original Odia is a lovely poem. Thanks for reading.
DeleteYour translation has done full justice to Bharat's excellent poem.Congrats to the poet and the translator.
ReplyDeletePranam. Thanks for your kind feedback on the translation sir. Regards.
DeleteThank you!
ReplyDelete