I shall arise

Bharat Majhi

Translated by Sailen Routray

Residence of the erstwhile rulers of the princely state of Kalahandi
Photo Credit: commons.wikimedia.org/ Siddhant Naik

I shall arise and milk 

the wind and the three worlds.

Those of you, 

who have been awake till now,

have you been able to tell 

a tree for a tree, 

a river for a river,

a flower for a flower,

a bird for a bird?

Have you been able 

to get drenched in the rains 

and get scorched in the sun 

and in the white heat of the dew? 

Have you been able to play marbles

at some unknown square,

revolve with the abandon of tops;

and fly kites reaching 

the other end of the earth?

You had never opened your doors. 

The only activity that was going on 

was the hanging of oil paintings on the walls,

and the vague recognition that 

this is the morning; 

that is the evening;

this is the monsoon; 

and those are the winter and the spring;

this is a tree; 

that is a flower;

this is a parakeet; 

and that is a deer.

Remember,

that when it seemed 

as if one was lost in sleep, 

I was busy searching for dreams, 

where I was a pair of scales, 

weighing torn oil paintings in some junkyard. 

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.