Rajeshwar Karki
When the day waned into a dark night –
they came to that antique village
and farmed thoughts
The villages ran
after the incoming thought
The day broke –
the village got the lush of that thought
and it looked cool and beautiful
The walls got filled with picturesque writing,
houses stood high in the tune of the thought,
and the village grew colorful
In mounds and vales, the wind of the thought blew,
the chautaris were fanned with the shade of the thought,
the bridges, canals and ducts in the village
were in reality, the vectors of the thought
People walked there,
where the bridge was
and they ran that way
along which the canals and the ducts ran.
Did the village prosper with the thought?
At midday –
the statue of its pioneer got erected
the people worshipped it in silence
and made this very practice
the mark of their civilization.
Once again the dusk rushed in,
the wave of yet an another thought
engulfed the village all of a sudden
shingles of sands, to clods of the soil and dry leaves
all ran after the new thought
and the tussle between the two thoughts
ran across the entire village.
And in the tussle, the vanity of the two thoughts struck,
thunderbolts tempered the dreaming eyes,
the thoughts hung from every tree,
and its odor came from every slope
from hills, trees, stones, and soil in the village.
Night came darting in the village –
the first thought proved narrow,
at midnight –
the statue of its pioneer
got dismantled
and revolution engulfed the village.
With thoughts, people expanded
but the village shrunk,
there was no space for writing a new thought
for, thoughts were not written in people’s heart
but on stones, soil, walls, barrages, and trees.
This night –
asking the efficacy of these thoughts,
I am awaiting a new morning ….!
And waiting for the convergence of all conflicting thoughts
like a morning, into which
all darkness dissolves…!
[Trans: Mahesh Paudyal]
Rajeshwar Karki is a poet and social activist from Jajarkot, now based in Nepal. He is the vice president of Nepali Kalasahitya Dot Com Pratisthan, a premier literary organization. His published works include Mero Kavitako Antim Pristha (Collection of poems, 2005, also English translation published in 2010, trans. Mahesh Paudyal Prarambha). He is also involved in editing owww.nepalikalasahitya.com (Purely literary web page), Sagarmathako Nrityamagna Aatma (Representative Modern Nepali Poetry, as advising editor), and literary magazines like Sirjana and Kuse.