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Two Poems — Nirmala Putul

May 12, 2026 | Hindi, Poetry | 0 comments

Translated from the Hindi by Pooja Sancheti

 

Adivasi Women

Their world extends only so far
as their eyes can see.
Many, many worlds like theirs
are contained in this world. They do not know

They do not know how
the things they make reach Delhi,
While the walking trails of their world die
before they can reach the highway.

They do not know how
rivers dry up on the way to their world
How do their photos end up in the metropolis?
They do not know! They
do not know!

 

Things that often escape your grasp

One woman weeps on the top of a hill
And another
leans out of a three-storeyed palace’s window
and smiles.
Listen, you poets who recite verses on women in your gatherings!
Look, something is happening in the spaces between these two women.
Record this something happening somewhere
Because such things often escape your grasp.

One woman sings, the other cries
and a third woman stands between the two
She thinks something as she looks at them.
Listen, you writers who advise on women’s conditions
Can you tell me what this third woman is thinking?

One woman carries a child tied on her back as she sows paddy
Another is occupied in raising and decimating governments.
Listen, you flag-bearing women who discuss Adivasi identity
Look for the women who have slipped between these lines,
whose names are not included in your debates!

Also read, Two Poems by Marisela Capriles Vergara, translated from the Spanish by James Richie and published by The Antonym.

Two Poems — Marisela Capriles Vergara

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Nirmala Putul

Nirmala Putul

Nirmala Putul (also referred to as Nirmala Putul Murmu) is a Santhali and Hindi writer, poet, and activist. She was born in 1972 in Dudhni Kurwa village in the Dumka district of Jharkhand. Her poetic publications include collections such as “Apne Ghar ki Talash Mein” (2004), “Nagade ke Tarah Bajte Shabd” (2005), and “Beghar Sapne” (2014). Her writings have been translated into multiple languages and feature in many school and college textbooks. She has been awarded the “Sahitya Samman” by the Sahitya Akademi and “Rashtriya Yuva Samman” by the Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad among many others. Her literary and activist work revolves around the plight of Dalit and Adivasi women, and interrogates the patriarchal and developmental mode of the world from a Adivasi-feminist perspective.

Pooja Sancheti

Pooja Sancheti

Dr Pooja Sancheti is an Assistant Professor of Literary Studies at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Pune. She teaches courses on English language and literature. Her research is primarily focused on South Asian Anglophone fiction, women’s writing, and postcolonialism. Her research has been published in reputed international journals. She is also a bilingual Hindi-English translator. Her translations have been published in Indian Literature (Sahitya Akademi), Hans Katha Masik, and The Beacon. She won the Rajendra Yadav Translated Story Award (awarded by Hans Katha Masik) in 2023.