Two Village Poems

REMIKA THAPA

Village Poem -1

When peach trees blossom,
 when cherry trees are in bloom
 or when rice ears sway in breeze,
 village is to be visited.
 Abandoning the machine bags on the ground beneath the eaves 
we go running to catch hold of fragrances.
Leaving at rest all the rallies, slogans and demonstrations,
hurries and worries that we’ve nurtured at heart  
 we go into deep slumber whole night.
 Yet again we couldn’t find time to ask
 why the schools and libraries were set on fire,
 why the streams and spring-water were going dry,
 the stories about those dead in landslides and flood, 
 about suicides,
 fleeing and transgression.    

***

Village Poem – 2

What is this exuberance for?
 Young women come to their parental homes
 prompted by the ritual of ‘Saune paani chhalnu’¹,
 are gathered now at the time of sunset
to see the rainbow
 arched from one hill to the other,
They’re ready also to collect the pieces of laughs
they’d left all over the courtyard of their childhood. 
 Saaun² too does not come alone.
 It comes accompanied by so many colors,
 temperaments, exciting news and gifts of villages. 
 Even while returning it doesn’t go alone.   
 Along with our daughters and sisters
 it goes further away through various forms of showers
 like bhadaurejhari, titeyjhari, fapareyjhari, sisneyjhari ³
 taking away many more things.  

***

Translated by Manprasad Subba

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1. Saaune paani chhalnu – a religious custom followed by traditional Hindu Nepali young women who are sent to their parental homes for the month of Saaun (mid-July to mid-August) following the taboo that forbids mother-in-law and daughter-in-law of a family from drinking water of the same spring.
2. Saaun – the name of a month between mid-July and mid-August in Nepali calendar.
3. Bhadaurejhari etc.—Names given by common folks to various types of rain.    

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