Rabat
O, Dolma!
Take from your legendary pub
a draught of chhyang,
strewn with maggots slithering all through
and come out;
let’s dance—you and I
in Gangnam Style.
Your crimson face, after all
calls for no disco light;
pencil-heal is of no worth to you
who grew pristine with bamboo colonnades
at the farm-edge;
your arms
pricked many a time by spines
of wild berries and rhododendron
as you scrambled over them,
need no tattoos of eminence.
Look!
The gunyu you have not afforded
to replace yet
has fallen far short of your sixteen-year old knees;
and yet, looks no less gorgeous in you
than a skirt.
The choli you received along with your gunyu
exposes to the world
your naval expanse
wide enough for a goat’s kid to scuttle
and the same looks
no less stylist than the ‘Designer’s Top’.
O, Dolma!
Why do you blush so much,
so coyly?
Come;
let’s laze underneath this sky
laden with millions of lights
and drink from cups
draughts and draughts of chhyang
with swarm of maggots
and tell one another, “I love you!”
After all, you and the slope
you have scaled on swings
are no less prodigious than a tall mansion
of many a storey.
Look;
how low does the Dharhara look
from this spot
and how diminished the Ghantaghar stands
with its Lilliputian gait!
How low the palaces of names I barely know
appear on the ground?
O, Dolma!
Come; climb atop this bay-berry
and look out;
the capital looks smaller than your dhungri
from there we, on hills all around it,
have always appeared no less than mere watchmen
keepings its security;
no less than porters,
and no less than slaves.
O, Dolma!
My beloved!
From your legendary pub
drink chhyang littered with slithering maggots
and come;
let’s scream out to the world:
“We are the master and mistress of this place;
we also have a capital, as you do.”
chhyang: locally-brewed millet beer
gunyu: a Nepali loin for women
choli: a cultural blouse, worn by Nepali women
[Rabat is a young Nepali poet and lyricist of immense popularity. Rajdhani Mastirako Rajdhani is his maiden collection of poems. He is based in Kathmandu.]