The raag of memory

 Ramakanta Samantaray

Translated by Sailen Routray

Painting by Padmaja Routray (2025)

 

No. Don’t open that compact.

There isn’t anything inside it.

 

On the day we came to know each other,

I had jailed some winds inside it.

It’s been a while since they escaped.

 

Go. Sleep now.

I will leave for my exile,

after the moon has set.

 

Then you would be able to cry and sleep

in the dust of the forecourt.  

While sleeping, you will lose your way

in dreams. 

 

At the end, you will meet yourself

besides a snaking river;

your face looking like history’s widow.

No matter how hard you would try,

the bloodstains of the loves

throttled by your hands would not wash off.

 

I would be sitting on a branch

of the tall tree at the edge of the river.

When about to blow into the flute

after putting it to my lips,

I would forget the raag again and again.  

Note: The Odia original of this translated poem is sourced from the poetry collection 'Asaranti Rekhachitra', published in 2022 by Barsha Publication (Bhubaneswar). 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.