It is necessary

Akhila Nayak

Translated by Sailen Routray 

'Birds and Flowers' (1747; ink and colour on paper)
Hua Yan (1682 - 1756) – Chinese Artist
Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

It is necessary to explode bombs.
Otherwise, these days,
it is impossible to squeeze
a drop of tear
out from someone’s heart.
 
This tear is called a poem,
and the poem is called a joy,
immaculately fabricated
from a single grain of rice.
 
There are many types of bombs
that are being exploded.
Slingshots murder
the glass dolls of the baby girl.
The overwhelming smell
of fresh lies of jasmines and henna
wafts from the letters of one’s love.
The ladder melts into thin air
after one has climbed it almost by half.
A tiger hulks in the middle of the market.
 
A bomb has been exploded.
The desert hovers over this verdant valley
with its quivering wings.
When everyone is busy escaping,
someone raises a crowbar
and runs towards the tiger.
This crowbar is called war,
and the war is the name of life itself.
And, life
is necessary. 

 

Note: This poem was originally published in the collection titled 'Dhobapharaphara' - 'Stark White'. The work of Akhila Naik (1968-2021) has been at the forefront of a process of transformation of Odia poetry over the last three decades where the language and concerns of the common people have come to the fore. Although he is primarily known as a poet in his home state, with multiple poetry collections published to wide acclaim, to the wider literary field in India he is known as the writer of the the first Odia Dalit novel 'Bheda' (originally published in 2010), that was translated by the Delhi based academic Raj Kumar and published by OUP in 2017.