The infinite game

Ramakanta Samantaray

Translated by Sailen Routray

Cape Town (ZA), Waterfront, Clock Tower, Detail
commons.wikimedia.org/Dietmar Rabich

Perhaps some other time

at some other place

we might meet again.

What would it have for us though?

The time would have been over. 

You will look at me

with a deeply unknowing glance.

I will avoid you

knowingly.

After so many years

the heart would have turned to stone.

Today mine own

tomorrow, someone else's

tomorrow someone else's

today mine own.

In this infinite game

tell honestly

who belongs to whom?

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.