Khanjana Sarma

Date of Publish: 2024-01-27

A few poems by Khanjana Sarma

(1)

Nudity

One day the Titanic sank.

while visiting the wreckage of the Titanic

The Titan sank another day .

 

All these will be written

in the bottom of the Atlantic

 

That day his hut

was flooded with the Pahumara water

and while going to see that

I drowned in his dry eyes.

 

All these things will be written

in the nudity of the embankment.

(Translated from original Assamese into English by the poet)

 

(2)

The Blades of Grass Paradox

While walking through the grasslands

Suddenly we touch a blade of grass

Pick up a fallen flower

from the thousands of withered ones

 

Which one will be in my hand!

 

This uncertainty lingers

Even in the twig of a creeper

Hanging in the forest.

 

We wait

For the soulbirds

Which had flown away

In the morning

In the hope to return

To the nest in the evening

 

In between

So many houses collapsed

So many minds shattered

 

In the flood

In the earthquake

In the eviction

 

And in the separation

 

The morning colour fades

 

In the evening

Only the preparations

Try to fill the gaps

 

Still we wait and hope

The journey would be longer

 

Though sometimes the only option

remains in returning

to the place

Once left

And searching the antique faith

Through one's own rusted face

 

Before something happens

If one could reach a deserted port

Where no one waits for none

 

Everyone will go there

Only for the journey's sake,

And will be waiting

Like the lost scent

Of a withered flower

(Translated from original Assamese into English by the poet) 

(3)

Eternal

 

Nobody is familiar with that path

Leading to the ghat

 

Yet at the end of countless paths

Everyone will

Tread there

 

Eternal is that unfamiliar ghat

There disappears

Any path of return

 

(Translated from original Assamese into English by . Nirendra Nath Thakuria)

 

(4)

Intimacy

One day I got into a tree

Through its hollow

As if the night door was open

Only for me

 

The tree

Naked

 

Half dried half rotten

 

How lonely

A night tree is!

 

I was going through

The murmuring

Of a dark, cold, broken tune

Leaving it's wound marks outside

And crossing all the century old rings

 

In the first stage of stillness

A group of children

Taking fire vase in each hand

To drive away coldness

 

In another stage

Two wrinkled hands and

A wild flower

 

The nearing distance

Being intimate

With the detachment

As I came out

Darkness sticked to my wings

And I was dwindling on a branch

 

Like a night bird.

(Translated from original Assamese into English by the poet)

(5)

Emptiness

 

Stories lie in everyone's heart

Some are loud

Some are silent.

 

Like the prayers of a worship house

Stories revolve around the breath

 

Somewhere,

Someone is assaulted

Someone is raped

Someone is forced to die

Thus everyone here

Is destined to suffer

 

Soon the stories die

The new ones begin

Every new story bears the old in it

 

With new colour

With new flavour

 

But the tears never dry

Who knows!

In whose eyes

The story within the story

Remains alive!

(Translated from original Assamese into English by the poet)

About the poet

 

Khanjana Sarma (1978) is an Assamese poet was. She lives at Pathsala, Assam. She writes poetry in both Assamese and English. Her poems have been published in leading Assamese and English magazines of Assam. Her only collection of poetry is Paanir Duaar. She can be reached at [email protected].