Things Are Yet to Happen

Basudev Sunani

Translator - Sailen Routray

Carmelite Monastery, Berdychiv, Zhytomyr Oblast, Ukraine
commons.wikimedia.org/Dmytro Balkhovitin

From the sound of the bells,

to the explosion of the drums,

from the meager collection

of sticks and straw,

to the destruction of the home;

whatever had to happen here,

has already happened.

Signlessly.

 

But I still feel it in my bones, 

that just round the corner,

something is lolling around to happen.

 

I know that here,

the tiniest of sounds 

is the scream of the panchajanya;

the smallest of reactions

resounds like thunderbolts.

 

Perhaps,

Therefore,

I have come to whisper

the darkest secrets;

after having survived 

the stupidest of accidents.

 

Those of you who have been busy

sowing darkness for centuries

after having loaded innocent excitements over 

with heaps of stones;

those of you who have been busy

carving juvenile self-absorptions

with the choicest of needles,

let this serve as a warning!

 

Here, a small, unclear,

yet glittering drop of water

shivers in the sky,

with the excitement of a rainbow 

long desired for and foreseen.

Here, a seed has taken the vow

to germinate with the wish

to turn everything green.

Here, a fallen woman searches

for a moment pure enough

to give birth to a child

who shall stall the seven warriors.

 

Thus,

I feel it in my bones,

that just round the corner,

something, is lolling around to happen.

Translator's Note: Basudev Sunani (b. 1962) is one of the foremost poetic voices of his generation in Odia literature. He also has a body of prose in the form of novels, academic monographs and essays in the language.