Raj Kumar Baral
Beloved,
Had your earth you walk in been different
and your dreams different from others’
perhaps I wouldn’t be able to say
who would be soaked
and who irrigated
by the pitchers of feelings
filled to the brim at the equator of beliefs.
Beloved,
Had the story of love you tell been different
and the trail you keep been a different one
perhaps
I wouldn’t be a listener to the palam you sing;
and you wouldn’t be the one to watch me perform balan
Yet, my love
it’s possible that snapped strings of the mind
would not come together again simply because
we live on the same earth
dream alike
walk along the same trail
and perform palam and balan together
You can, at such a moment, surmise
the life you lived
doesn’t seem yours;
and life I read
doesn’t seem mine.
Reckon, my love
dreams have their own legacy;
they have their own mansion
far grander than the memories of your reality.
[Raj Kumar Baral (b 1983) is a poet, critic and translator. He began his literary career from his school days and continuously writing poems, doing translations and publishing critical opinions on language and literature on different newspapers and journals.]