At mid night

Ramakanta Samantaray

Translated by Sailen Routray

Photo credit: A R Vasavi

At the stroke of mid night 

it feels like my two feet 

have escaped to the forecourt. 

It feels like the two hands are gone 

and are practicing some raag

on father's old harmonium 

from under the bed.

My sleep shatters.

You sing

and make me sleep again

on a soft bed of hundreds of sharp arrows.

Then you carry my body

that has no arms and legs 

to the country of tiny stars

that lies closest to the top of our home.

You throw me from there.

Floating down from space,

I get sown, in the earth.

When I come 

the morning of the day after

holding a cup of tea for you,

you have fallen into sleep

having wrapped around

a clean shawl

of a beautiful complaint.  

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.