By KESHAB SIGDEL
I rode on the turtle’s back
Back to four centuries
Along the Mingjiang River
And the basin greeted me with
Swaying crops and fruits
I drank in the nectar of the greens
I jumped and laughed
And woke up at the station
Where the city metro alarmed
To resume to the South
I watched the Pandas
Dancing in their divine gestures
Amidst the bamboo groves
Dujiangyan2
Worked in and out
To ensure the basin’s fertility
We climbed the flyovers in the downtown
That took us to a country of bliss
Tian Fu3 is thy name
O Chengdu!
I assume abundance runs through
The sounds of the sparrows
And the footprints of the turtles
I just smile
To see thousand of faces blurred
In the speed of the super express highway.
1A city in Sichuan Province of China (Chengdu)
2Irrigation system in the Chengdu basin
3Tian Fu in Chinese means something in abundance
[Keshab Sigdel (b. 1979) is a Nepali poet and translator, who writes both in Nepali and English. Lecturer of English at Tribhuvan University, he has been working as an incredible bridge among writers from Nepal and abroad through collaborative efforts including translation. His seminal publications include his collection of poems Samaya Bighatan, Six Strings (co-authored), and Barve Sonca/Colours of the Sun (poesis) and several titles in translation. Editor of An Anthology of Contemporary Nepali Poetry (Big Bridge, USA: 2016), he also edits two other journals Rupantaran (publication of Translation Department, Nepal Academy, the apex body of Literature and Arts in Nepal) and Of Nepalese Clay (English literary magazine of the Society of Nepali Writers in English). He has served as an editor for academic journals Perspectives on Higher Education (2016), SciMass (Islamabad, 2016-2017) Devkota Studies (2012-2014), Literary Studies (2009-2012), Chrysanthemum (2004), and Pragya (2006).]