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.
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.
Krishna Dulal Barua is a teacher of English language and music. He has been consistently translating poetry, fiction and non-fiction from Assamese to English. His translations have appeared in the Sahitya Akademi’s bi-monthly journal, Indian-Literature, Chandrabhaga, Indian Review, poetryinternational.org, the UK- based literary journal ‘Modern Poetry in Translation’, nezine.com and others. His published books of translation includes Selected Poems of Nilmani Phookan, The Sword of Birgosri (novel), Blossoms of Harmony (lyrics of Dr Bhupen Hazarika) all published by the Sahitya Akademi, Select Poems of Lakshminath Bezbaroa, published by the National Book Trust etc. He has to his credit two books on music, a collection of articles, ‘Contours’ and a collection of poems, ‘On and on’. He received the Katha Award for Translation in 2005.
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