This time

Ramakanta Samantaray

Translated by Sailen Routray

Photo crdit - A. R. Vasavi

When you come back this time

I won't be there.

I would have left

to reach that mountain burnt with envy.

Or I would be sitting 

alone

near the river dried up

with the thirst of our greed.

Would you leave from there?

Or would you start looking for me?

I have lost my way

in the dense jungle of faithlessness. 

I have become afraid 

with the storm, wind and lightening 

of your indifference.

An ambush of tigers 

have mauled me up 

and eaten through me,

in my helplessness. 

This time the flowers of the flame of the forest 

across the jungle are becoming a little redder

in anger.    

You would have forgotten me by the evening

after a really good shower.

Then you would leave for Puri in a hurry

in the middle of the night with an old flame

after tearing up the chit of paper

with our home's address. 

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.