Snake

Ramakanta Samantaray

Translated by Sailen Routray

Three Old Ladies (1916) by Jēkabs Kazaks  (1895 - 1920)
Photo credit - commons.wikimedia.org

A snake.

Seeing a snake,

I took a couple of steps back.

You said, "Shoo!

Where is the snake?

It's a rope!"

You swept the rope away

with your legs

and moved ahead.

Now the snake hisses.

The rope has turned into a snake.

You are calling me

with a lot of affection,

that I know.

Try and understand my state though.

It is not possible to move ahead.

There is a snake on the road.

The snake has raised its hood

and lies astride the path.

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.