विनोद विक्रम के.सी.

Translation Poem: Serpentine colony

– Binod Bikram k.c.

The first lessons you taught me were
to never crawl in life
to flow, sometimes egoistic
like a lover engrossed in own Loveland
to flow, sometimes roaring
like a rebel desperate to change the world

thank you! O river!
you saved me from dying
the inviting death by stagnancy

on the fourteenth day of my mother’s death
sitting on a rock at the bank, I wept
looking at your flowing face
Mother used to say, never pollute a river
that the soul of the river will cry

men of ill intentions have built
a serpentine colony

how the traitors would know!
the fish, the Peebles, and the sands are
someone’s offsprings

like a mother
who lost her sons and daughters one by one
sometimes in famine, sometimes in war
you are wandering off-track
carrying in your chest stories of grief  infinite
and the tune of the salt in your throat

When I am reading a newspaper  in a dream
suddenly Aurahi river breaks in the paper
Om Prakash a.k.a. Dilip Kumar,
the river lover’s dead body at the sandbank
crushed completely under
the tire of a tripper truck
fully smeared in blood

it is dull news in a country that is
tempted to mass-murder the lovers

but sometimes
a single matchstick can cremate
your dream-world
and after that
you will start loving
trees, rivers, clouds, birds, children, Dilip
sacredly as never before,
this is the belief of a poet
please do not wrong it

at this hour
there are things that I must prove
I am not the man
that accommodates the river
just on the play- cards, banners or
on Facebook on Twitter

my nerves are
the river’s nativity

I am not afraid of
the gun on the shoulders of
the returners from the hunt of the river

to snatch back the reigns of the river
from the hands of the dread
and hand it back to the river itself,
will flow from my heart
a river of fire any day
I’m sure of it.

Rivers are not like the human
Bhupin
Rivers
are not into politics like the human
Rivers
Are not adept at manipulation like the human
demolishing the  wall of
life-less consciousness
rising ugly hands, they do not defame each other
they do not have falling out with each other

they do not separate colors, they are not racist
Rivers
do not discriminate the caste
in rivers’ constitution, even the tiny fountains have the equal right to become
the ocean
even the tiny rivulet has equal right to become the ocean

defying inhibitions,
Rivers can ascend the hills
Rivers can cut off the hills

Rivers are capable of drying  themselves up if they like
Rivers are capable of swelling up if they like
but perhaps rivers
are not able to bow low like the human
are not able to ache like the human

Rivers never walk away from  the streams, poor and dwarf, cheated by the creation,
Scared of own ego hurt, like the human

Rivers don’t choose to walk down a different path
Fearing color mismatch, like the human

River’s  black water can match with River’s white water
River’s white water can match with River’s  black water

Rivers are not the Negros by birth
Rivers are not the whites by birth

Rivers do not be the Aryans and the Mongolians
Rivers do not be the Muslims
Rivers do not be the Christians

Rivers are like Rivers
They are not like the human.
‘R’ in rivers is capitalized for the cause.

 Himal khadka

Translation-Himal khadka