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Bharat Majhi

Translated by Sailen Routray

Residence of the erstwhile zamindars of Thuamul Rampur, Kalahandi
Photo credit: commons.wikimedia.org/ 

I shall not term 
your loss as a failure.

I am a martyr of 

the cruel happiness of your presence.
If your loss has to translate 

itself into sorrow,
then I shall aid in the translation.

This is not to say that things 
shall not change at all.
Now I’ll search 

for the blueprint of your home 
in the wandering clouds;
I’ll ask the restless wind,
the number of your office;
I’ll read about 

the deadly wars occasioned by you
in some tabloid on a sultry afternoon.
This is not to say that I can remember 
all the blueprints, numbers and headlines.

Now I know, 
that I am yet to earn
the competence to enjoy my failures;
hence, 
I have no need to 

term your absence 
as an emptiness.

Even my deepest sorrows are not mine. 

Why should I, then, 

long for the silences 
induced by your words?

It is perhaps better to remain lost
in the arrogance of this search. 

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.