The House Where I was Born — Ammu Deepa

Feb 8, 2025 | Poetry

TRANSLATED FROM THE MALAYALAM BY AMMU ASHOK

 

 

It’s been fifteen years
Since I left my home
wearing jasmine garland
on my hair.

Covertly,
I registered my home
in my brother’s custodian
Since then, once or twice a year
visits with a disgruntled face in hurry.

I stash
the big duffel bag
of clothes and bath towel
at the bottom
of the stairs.
At night after a shower
when its start serving dinner
to my noisy kids in hurry
lights go off
as always.

The foul stinking little bug
I’ve never seen before
landed right onto
my back neck
then.


Also, read The Hyena  by Soham Das, translated from the Bengali by Amitava Sen, and published in The Antonym:

The Hyena — Soham Das


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Ammu Deepa

Ammu Deepa

Ammu Deepa has been publishing poems in various periodicals in Malayalam for a decade. Born in Pattambi, Palakkad district. Poems have been translated into English, Hindi, Marathi, and Bengali. Critics often consider Ammu Deepa’s poems as a good example of Malayalam post-feminist poetry. The constant debates between femininity and the cosmos, and the wanderings in search of the secret paths of the human mind, are the hallmarks of Ammu Deepa’s poems. Two collections of her poems titled Karimkutty (2019) and Irikaporuti (2022) received much critical acclaim. She is a painter and a teacher by profession.

Ammu Ashok

Ammu Ashok

Ammu Ashok is a poet, translator and educator. Her works have been featured in many anthologies, books and electronic media. She was honored with the ‘Distinguished Poet Award- 2023’ in the International Rabindranath Tagore Poetry Prize 2023. Her poems have been featured one among 14 nationalities in International Human rights magazine, USA and poems in translation appeared in Kerala Sahitya Akademi Journal.

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