The Pond | Mahim Bora (trans. Krishna Dulal Barua)

The last showers have just petered out,
Now it’s afternoon
In the woods of the serene body
Sparkled blue and green fireworks
Bright, swarthy!

[The drum-beats stopped
Multitude of Chaotali dances
Spattered giggling
Round the sides of the pond,
Swarthy, bright! ]

Enchanted are my legs!
A brimful pond
Engulfs the expanse of its sides

The weight of an absconding beam of sunlight
Makes the body unsteady
Puts the fringe of footing and freedom
At unrest
A brimful pond!
A sluggish languid body, a restless spirit at unease
The anticipation agonising………….

Alloys of charcoal in the layers of life
The odour of new deaths in each breath
This world of ours conceives
In the womb of some accursed Samba.

Thus perplexed we remain
Awaiting your answer
An answer, spruce and swarthy.

Author : Mahim Bora  Mahim Bora 

Mahim Bora (6 July 1924 – 5 August 2016) was an Indian writer and educationist from Assam.He was elected as a president of the Assam Sahitya Sabha held in 1989 at Doomdooma. He was awarded with most notably with the Padma Shri in 2011, the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2001 and the Assam Valley Literary Award in 1998. Assam Sahitya Sabha conferred its highest honorary title Sahityacharyya on him in 2007.

Translator : Krishna Dulal Barua 

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