Original language: Assamese
Translation by: Bibekananda Choudhury
Photo by Jr Korpa on Unsplash
Primary Lesson
Seated on the knowledge-workshop of the hearth
She
Warming the ash-coloured eyes in the burning charcoal
Through the gaps of her fingers
Said
After ten months ten days of sacrifice
You are all unique gift for me
Apart from the huge expanse of the sky
Through birthright
You also possess the beautiful earth
So
Be a great benefactor like the Sun
And enduring like the earth
I cried the moment I was born
Perhaps understood the travails of childbirth
Since that day tears wells up in my eyes
At the pain and joy of people
Tears are whose companion at birth
How can he stay composed
My first sweet sound is nectar-laced ma
Since then unknowingly at every careless moment I pronounce ma
Mother’s sacrifice – my birth
I need to be sacrificial too
Otherwise can’t be ungrateful
My joy mother’s joy
My sorrow mother’s sorrow
I can’t ever be sorrowful
For whom
The sky and the earth
Are the capital
He is literally the god of joy
*
The Two Eyes
One for joy
The other
For sorrow
Both are bosom friends
In the sorrow of a doleful friend
The joyous one can’t feel happy
It rolls in joy
In sorrow too
So
A salty stream
In the moist eyes
About the translator:
Bibekananda Choudhury, an electrical engineer by profession working with the State Government of Assam has completed his Masters from BITS-Pilani. He has also earned a diploma in French Language from Gauhati University. He has got published works (both original and translated) in Assamese, Bengali & English in popular periodicals and newspapers.
Guna Moran is an Assamese poet and critic who lives in Assam, India. His poems have been published in various international magazines, journals, webzines and anthologies such as Story Mirror, Spillword, Glomag, International Anthology of Poems on Autism, Best Poetry, and many more. They have also been translated into Italian, French, and Bangla.
Be First to Comment