Event

Ramakanta Samantaray

Translated by Sailen Routray

St. Nicholas Church in Mavrovo, North Macedonia. built in 1850
commons.wikimedia.org/Daniela Stefanoska

You had come so soundlessly that

while opening the closed door

there wasn't even a creak. 

You came, it felt nice.

All the old things

started looking new.

Birds who had lost their voice

started singing.

The wind opened the window

and started being naughty.

The whole city's moonlight came

and heaped up on the courtyard and the terrace.

Flowers showered themselves

on the tree that was long asleep.

Life,

started feeling good again.

What inopportune thing did I say

that you got up and went out

at such an odd hour?

You slammed the standing door

with such a bang

that it burst like thunder.

After having come so silently

you left with so much noise

that my heart is now deaf. 

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.