Teacher in the Prison

Mishra Baijayanti

I keep an eye on the paddy through the window
of a classroom
All in silence
The ripe rice-grains are rippling
I lend my ears to the farmers,
Their hardworking fingers
Sincere nous
And earnest hopes
I cannot lay any claim on their patience and diligence.

Carrying a marsh in morass
A standing integrated-moraine
A warmer intertwined in the freezing breeze
Auspicious news that the spider broadcasts from the door
Marketing supressed by politics
Where
The school is out of the school
Fastening the epiglottis with academism, I do teaching
Or else I am a scholar.

I have often wiped the principles of destruction and construction out of the board
Even the language, folk tales and existence’s existence
A shaft of light and rays of hopes have also been projected on the same board
How much more there is to be absorbed!
I the notice and curriculum that are pasted on the egoistic road
A long way is to be walked
The intellect is to be sharpened every morning.

I can’t grow intelligence nurturing the knowledge
I am in the prison of plans
Exam, passed and result-sheets are also therein
I can think alone
I can discuss with myself
But the lessons from the course are locked in the prison
Consciousness is elsewhere outside
Cognition is somewhere outside.

       Translation from Nepali by Badal Devi Chamling

[Baijanti is a noted poet and critic.]