Gopal Prasad Rimal
O lass, o damozel,
we have met as the sun meets the rain,
perhaps you remember –
we have cuddled like a cloud.
A rainbow falls upon the cloud
and downpour drenches, and the wind howls.
And its aftermath, we have become as clear as the sky.
In your depth, in that seriousness, O beauty,
my youthful exhuberence has been lost;
we have wept, and have laughed,
but the care today has rendered,
all of those things dull.
This care should have marked that excitement
instead of a mere “I love you,”
I could have dared to say, “I am impregnating you.”
(1)
O lass, o damozel,
love thrives even in woods.
In countryside; in the town,
that love alone does not suffice;
here should come impregnation – pious and responsible
Buddha should be begotten here, and Lenin.
Other than children, is there a clearer mirror
whereon our image is reflected the best?
A self-reflection should evolve here.
(2)
O lass, o damozel,
when I meet you next,
I shall tell you straight,
“I will impregnate you.”
And if I do not meet you,
I shall find someone
as enticing as you are
and equally numbed,
drawing my heart closer as you do.
To that lass, to that damozel,
I am in full care; I will be strong enough to say,
“I will impregnate you.”
Gopal Prasad Rimal, the first successful prose poets is an epochal milestone of modern Nepali poetry. Born on 1 July 1918, he started writing when he was 16. His first published work was a poem titled ‘Prati’, published in 1935 in a magazine called Sharada. As a subject of the Rana regime, Rimal’s writing naturally bore revolutionary and anti-Rana fervor. His published works include plays like Masan (Cremation Ground) and Yo Prem (This Love) and Aamako Sapana (Mother’s Dream, a collection of poems. He also edited magazines like Sharada and Darpan . He won Madan Award (For Aamako Sapana) in 1962) and Tribhuvan Award in 1973. He died on 23 December 1973.