The History Notebook

Bharat Majhi

Translated by Sailen Routray

Jakam, Kalahandi
Photo Credit: commons.wikimedia.org/Debasish Rout

If one could finish
the half-built limbs of the gods;
without having lost one’s clothes;
then the stone gargoyles 
could get up and dance;
then one could unsheathe
the wooden sword, 
that could slay the tyrants.
if one could destroy the Mahisasuras 

The earth that is under our feet
now has a peculiar character.
Here tears evaporate into 
a damp nothingness 
before 
they can hit the ground,
and the answers to many relevant questions 
are tucked away 
in the crevice of the roof 
that arise from it.

The shortest distance between 
him and I 
is etched on the circumference 
of a circle 

spreading just beyond your dreams.

Our demands and declarations 
are thus 
laughable indeed.
Because the surface of our anger
is weak enough 
not to stand the weight 
of many questions.

We do not have any proof
that we indeed are hungry and thirsty 
after the torrid crossings of the caves.
Then may be one does not need
these copper plates, 
these palm leaves?

We know that this is
definitely not the answer, 
complete and whole.
Even easy questions
cannot bear being as facile as this.
Then how many eons
should we endure 
sitting inside these examination halls?

Look! 
On that side lie
our regular historical excitements.
Excitements so intense,
that we could laugh 
only if one were playing the emperor,
and on the other side
lie the consequences 
of all our questions. 

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.