Barpak

Shyam Rimal

Gorkha trembles
The Gurkhas are invincible
The holy cows will be protected

From where would Buddha Peak rise again?
Who will tread this rocky trail?
Who will play the bhurung and the cap-dropping game?
Who will sing the thado bhaka and the lingemai song?
Who will dance again the ghatu, maruni and the lahure dances?

Where would the owls and the eagle owls ( huchils) live?
Where would be the loads of mules and other belongings?
Where was the medal of VC Gaje Ghale buried?
Where did the lamp of Bir Bahadur Ghale fade away?

Which Ghale or the Gurung would cook porridge?
In the cliff torn apart,
The paddy field with cracks
And in the wrecked settlements?
And which tourist from town would visit here
To taste roasted sheep – meat and nettle curry cooked by seven sisters?

Who would again roof the stone houses?
Who would sow maize in the field, who would grow gold everywhere?
Which Barpaki would come forward?
Like tying twelve tigers, forgetting the earthquake?

(commemorating Gorkha earthquake 2015)

Shyam Rimal (b. 1966) is a Nepali poet, lyricist and journalist. His published works include Euta Kada Bijhda (songs), Trishuliko Kinarbata (poems) and Barpak (earthquake poems). He is presently the Chief Editor at Rashtraiya Samachar Samiti, a state-owned news agency in Nepal.