TRANSLATED FROM THE HINDI BY DIPANWITA BHATTACHARYYA
The Last Sun
On the last day of her life
The girl looks at the sun
by opening the window
moving the drapes aside
tattered and battered
from the threshold
in her desire for misfortune
she takes out
a bowl full of rice
from the pot on the stove
without shedding the boiling water
months later, rocks peak
from the snow-covered mountains
months later, relieved from the winter’s curse
wheels run again
months later, the heart of the mountain
trembles again
by the frenzied railways
birds nibbling on grain
reached the railway tracks
months later,
the track is stained
by the blood of a learned bird
Hypnosis
when I read it
all the black alphabets ran towards me like horses
they came in hundreds
I tried to push them
with my ten fingers and two palms
I tried to reach them
they have horse power
and my mitochondria are incapable of love
I have dug my grave in a small crack
around his glasses and wrinkles
I will go with him
his glasses know that
I will be killed
I will be killed by that crowd
from whom I think differently
to not think like the crowd
is not to be against the crowd
instead, it is for their good
so, the crowd cannot be herded
like sheep
it nevertheless is so
that the different is usually killed
by the crowd
I am Drowning
I am drowning
in a pond
a small pond
beside which
there is a school
and a temple, a little far
I’m neither learned
nor religious
death is certain
I do not know how to swim
jumping into the pond
without knowing how to swim
that too on the day
when the school is closed
and the temple is open
it is uncanny to invite death
when the school is open
it is uncanny to invite death
into the world
when the school exists
He Said
he said
you’re so lovely Anna
and the world shrank
and became a word
he stroked my lips with his fingers
and the river shrank and became a line
he caressed my hair
a sentence was born out of the fallen leaves
and when he said yes
the sky of hope
became an extinct language
then one day
he raised his finger
that day
the sun, the moon
the clouds and the sky
all rose and went up
Also, read a Bengali fiction written by Ahana Biswas, translated into English by Aritrik Dutta Chowdhury, and published in The Antonym:
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