Love song

Bharat Majhi

Translated by Sailen Routray

 Fortified Ingush military tower, 'Hamishki', circa 16th century,
with Erzi towers and Olgetti village in the background.
Armkhi Valley, Republic of Ingushetia, Central Caucasus.
Photo Credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/ Vyacheslav Argenberg

I counted whatever I could not do,
and cried.

I have to speak, if so demanded:
I have to say that 
the ground beneath my feet is still green;
the snake slithering away is still brown;
the wind muscling its way through 

my diseased windows is still cursed;

my head is still hot;

and, that my heart  is 

still cold and still.

I have written and erased so many names.
But I could never tell any of them, 
that this is the soil, 

and that is sin,
this is a tree, 

and that is the wind,
this is a ghost, 

and that is love;
And more than anything else,
I could never tell any one of them,
that this is
life.

I have written 

and erased so many names. 

I counted whatever I could not do,
and cried.

Note: The 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.