Sudha M. Rai
It was in vain,
that I went to the market of mirrors
to look at my own image.
I was fine – nothing ached, or re-ached,
I had, like others managed to forget,
the wounds of time and relations
like the ditches, hewed out by gusty raindrops,
only a few dents of the past were alive.
Oomph!
What a face of the crowd it is, a
in the market of mirrors!
The more I walk over the crowds,
the more distinctions I can discern
between the true faces, and images inside the mirror.
Inside the glass I retract my face lost in the crowd
and face a perplexity, a dilemma whether
I should laugh or cry.
With a baffled and disconsolate conscience,
I come out of the market gate,
stroke the heart’s wound with one hand,
and touch the lost face with the other.
It was in vain,
that I went to the market of mirrors
to look at my own image.
Trans: Mahesh Paudyal
[Sudha M. Rai is a Darjeeling-based poet of high repute. Her published works include Phoolko Youban Phoolaisita Joda (1995), Birodabhas (2000), Padachinha (Collection of poems, 2007), Khalil Jibranka Prempatraharu (Translation); Samadhanheen Pailaharu (Collection of stories, 1998), etc.]