Wall

Ramakanta Samantaray

Translated from Odia by Sailen Routray

Photo credit: commons.wikimedia.org/LBM1948

A beautiful, clean, white wall.

Shiny

Clear

When you had the time

while coming and going

you used to see the wall

clean, spotless.

Once you saw

there is a patch of dirt

sticking to the wall.

You picked up a rag doused with water

and scrubbed and scrubbed.

The dirt went, 

the spot remained.

The small spot 

on the white wall

now leaped at the eye

more and more.

It hurt the soul,

it hurt the mind.

I am reminding you

as you have forgotten.

You yourself had one day

whitewashed this old white wall 

for yourself.

Note: The Odia original of this translated poem is sourced from the poetry collection 'Asaranti rekhachitra', published in 2022 by Bhubaneswar-based publication house Barsha Publication. The poet Ramakanta Samantaray, born in 1972, has studied painting at the Bibhuti Kanungo College of Art and Craft (Bhubaneswar), and Odia Literature and Language at the Utkal University (Bhubaneswar). His doctoral work was a meditation on contemporary theatre in Odia. With this combination of literature, language, and the visual arts, he has been constantly working to create hybrid narratives. Apart from being a painter, he has also published fifteen books, including collections of poems and short stories, and novels. He has written and published articles on art, artists, and monographs in Odia. He presently lives and works in Bhubaneswar.