This bank of the river

Ramakanta Samantaray

Translated by Sailen Routray

Bas-reliefs of Achaemenid warriors
Location: Southern staircase of Tachara in Persepolis, Iran
Photo credit: commons.wikimedia.org/ Diego Delso

From this bank to the other
it’s quite far.
In between
there is a wide, full-bosomed river.

You left this bank
and went to the other side.    
You left the other bank
and came to this side. 

Neither the boat
nor you
will be able to touch
both the banks at the same time.

Become the river.
Go on touching
both the banks of the river
with joy.

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.