The bridge on the river

Ramakanta Samantaray

Translated by Sailen Routray

Photo credit - A. R. Vasavi

Once while bathing in the river 

I knew there is a river inside me as well.

Really deep flows,

and ditches on both the sides.

Throughout the summer

the water gurgles its way through.

During the rainy season,  

it breaches its banks, and floods.

Now there is a bridge

over the river.

Radhua, the boatman who had hung himself 

from the banyan tree on the old ghat last year,

his ghost takes the boat 

and goes to the other bank

on every night on which the moon is out

and comes back again to the old ghat

before the dawn breaks.

After the bridge on the river

so many vehicles come.

After the bridge has come up,

a troop of monkeys have also arrived in the village.

Now near the ghat there is 

a statue of Hanuman twenty four feet tall.

His shadow flows unceasingly 

in the river's water.

The village has piped water.

The stones of the bathing ghat 

have eroded and have been swept down.

It is the city 

that has come into the village  

through the bridge.

And along with the vehicles and the city,

a troop of monkeys have entered through the bridge

and are tossing the whole village around. 

 

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.