Sharad Ritu
The son, who stayed out of home for years
And gulped all the sciences
Returned home one fine day
Only to pick the stone
His mother had been worshipping at her shrine for years
And roll it down the hill
Outside his house
Shielding herself from her son’s eyes
The mother secretly dropped some tears
Atop the stone.
Nurtured by her teardrops
The stone developed some green life
Before long
As time rolled by
The mother felt:
The tender lips she had fondly kissed for years
Had transformed into sand.
[Trans: Mahesh Paudyal]
[Sharad Ritu (b. 1993) is a Nepali poet based in Chaitwan. A student of MA in English from Tribhuvan University, his poems and essays have appeared in a number of papers. He is one of the contributors to Anuharko Bheed and Ujyaloka Maliharu, collections of poems by young Nepali poets. He is also a good translator.]