Ayodhya

Bharat Majhi

Translated by Sailen Routray

Aragonite Crystal - Los Molinillos, Cuenca, Spain
(Size 4×3.6×3.5 cm, weight 100 g)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/JJ Harrison

We have not witnessed
a house of worship being destroyed.

We have just flown a few thousand miles
after cutting the wings of the birds 
in lieu of certain needs.
After having offered a hundred thousand bel leaves,
we have passed all the examinations in the world.

We had a heritage like the lost finger of Ekalavya,
that was given away as an offering.
Now we have filled a jar with blood,

and with that filled jar

we shall welcome the returning wings.

The shape of our happiness
dazzles the darkness.
We have finished building the hands
permanently joined in a salutation.
We are already staring at some loose scriptures.

Therefore dear sir, 
we have not witnessed
a house of worship being destroyed.

Note: Poet Bharat Majhi (born in 1972 in Kalahandi) works in an Odia language media house in Bhubaneswar. He has published nine volumes of poems in a poetic career spanning more than three decades. Amongst other recognitions, he has won the Bhubaneswar Book Fair Award in 2008 and the Sanskriti Award in 2004.