Perhaps, one day

Ramakanta Samantaray

Translated by Sailen Routray

commons.wikimedia.org/Dominicus Johannes Bergsma

One day, perhaps,

I will just go somewhere.

Venus would be asleep then.

I would tell her after waking her up

let's go now,

we don't have anything to do anymore.   

After that perhaps you would come out

of the thorny garden you have created.

Perhaps you would think of me

standing under the mango tree

beside the pond in the backyard.

After trillions of years

that day the rainbow's face will be visible

across the hill in your village.

And two tear drops would roll down

from your eyes that would have just woken up.

There may not be anyone beside you

to be with you for your grief

for me

and for the rainbow.

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.