This poem is from Durga Lal Shrestha’s poetry collection London Rose. This is one among the collection of poems he penned in Nepalbhasa while he visited London to participate in Mha-puja in November and December of 2001 on the invitation of Pasa Pucha Guthi UK.

Originally written in Nepalbhasa, these poems were translated by Giridhar Manandhar and published by Pasa Pucha Guthi UK .

Around Buckingham Palace

O Buckingham, so beautiful, so magnificent, you look,

Sound and solid is thy architecture,

Lost in admiration just I was,

I felt rudely woken up too as if from slumber.

Nepal’s majestic showpieces on display,

Work of the Shahs and the Shamshers,

I do see them now as but treasures

Erected from your leftovers!

All mighty palaces so called,

And the many statues that stand at crossings,

Carbuncles do they appear to me now,

Growing detestably on my nose!

A great many are burning alive,

In the furnace of their evil deeds,

A great many, though departed, give out fragrance,

To warm our hearts with deeds virtuous.