Date of Publish: 2024-09-22

A few poems by Ankur Ranjan Phukan

 

MACHIAVELLIAN

 

The many folds in the umbrella till it was ironed by the rain, that much pure is the light of chaklong diya. The ghancharai memorising tamol folded by forgetfulness savoury or bitter? Whatever be it, ‘Give us one too.’

The slanted scattered image on the mirror, as it had been enjoying fluid gymnastics in the middle-aged railing, whom did it suddenly say, ‘Only those coloured juicy saliva is what matters.’

The umbrella is already open, as if an immature joke

It is perhaps irrelevant to translate event.

I don’t have any compassion to the extra finger of the one for whom is the boiling milk borrowing the heat from nought. Perhaps irrelevant.

The fluid gymnastics enjoyed alone. All the prohibited seats are airless. Irrelevant?

Relevant – irrelevant

Dialectic sometime ahead of thought

Perhaps not dialectic, dichotomy

 

Leave these theories, though thinly attended

Let the marriage be over, give me a ghancharai* tamol**

My only umbrella, suffering from cold

Let it remain in its folds

 

**Tamol – a mouth freshener chew comprising of arecanut, betel leaf, a little lime and optionally a small quantity of tobacco; it is offered as a mark of respect to any visitor, and forms a part of every ritual

*ghancharai – ghanchirika – sparrow, sarai – bird; in a folk song, the sparrow is asked to bring a tamol

 

WAVE OF DOVE FEATHER

 

Art is never finished, only abandoned

-Leonardo Da Vinci

 

All the doves are now dog-tired

They were the ones who sowed a pencil of rays of jackfruit leaves in my reddish bones. A flying port starts from the bones itself. It is rainy in the port.

Actually no one can be flawless without a flaw. Life is breaking the inertia. Wild spin of every undulating earth.

Vinci, please draw a sketch in my eyes. A mouth-full of rusty music would vibrate in the nerve of the night. You’d shout satiating the hunger of the Last Supper

I’d be startled breaking the riddle of the speechless star

An airplane of oceanic cloud would flap by below the footsteps

Actually no one can be flawless without a flaw.

The fact that a diameter can be drawn flawlessly in the flawless number, is known to the geometry of playing cards. Is it known to the mined pictures?

 

WHY SELF ?

In the majority of dual organs

Infighting is most natural

Self and one

Adds up to oneself

Not quite!

After being render pauper

One is oneself

Let there be trial

Who is the fighter of infighting

 

I or oneself ?

 

SHAREBULL

 

Usain bolt is a nice person. The adamant bull of the high land knows that very well. What was it actually arch rival or rifle, whatever it be, even after that he was presented with a pair of shoes. He would effortlessly cross over pointed peaks. The bull will come over to tell me an impossible story. It would take fifty-two weeks for Ankur Ranjan to complete the third narrative of this exaggeration with self designed curved lines.

 

What would be name of the old flyover for fifty-two weeks? What about the vacant space in front of the flyover? Two children brought in there for a walk have asked their father about the issue. Forget other things, the flyover appears as a black and white bear. What do you mean by the word appear? One should speak confidently even if it is a lie – this is the monument of the bear of the story of a bear not gobbling up a dead person. So what should it be christened as? One is put in a dilemma. A bear cannot fly. A flyover in its name? Would it be nice? Possible, am just writing poetry.

 

World record, terrible defeat, incomparable innings, failure, injured, comeback, spectacular shot – these words were found written on the strip of paper laid under the dish during supper. Keeping balance on these like one thus on the stones and bricks lying over a shallow pool of water, the bull and Usain Bolt is sprinting. The flyver is sniffing this very poem- is it still alive even after o much reference and association?

 

CLOSE BY

 

The pair of socks is stinking

Knowledge gained as gift by smelling

invisible monotonic and nearly seen comparisons

Struck by lightning yet rich in sense

Concealing the dumbstruck situation of about to set glue inside the sock

The blame is put squarely on the wrestling musk rat

 

This foul-smelling pair of socks

Is only to put an end to

Your swoon

 

Forgive me

My fragile guest

 

All poems have been translated from original Assamese into English by Bibekananda Choudhury

About the poet

Ankur Ranjan Phukan (B.1994) is an Assamese poet. He has been writing poems in various Assamese newspapers and magazines since 2010. He was the recipient of the prestigious Munin Barkotoki Literary Award, 2019 for his manuscript of poems, ‘?’ (Hrasanta ta). Later the manuscript got published as a book in the same year (2019). Phukan represented the Assamese poetry in a poets’ meet organised by Sahitya Akademi in NEW DELHI WORLD BOOK FAIR, 2018, All Indian Young Writers’ Meet(2023) organised by Sahitya Akademi in Kolkata. The Hindi translation of few of his poems were published in the fortnightly magazine ‘Duniya in Dinon’, New Delhi, (1-15 June issue, 2018). The Bangla translation of one of his poems got published in the celebration issue of the famous Bangla magazine ‘Krittibas’ (April-June, 2019).He has been selected for Akashvani’s National Symposium of Poets,2024 held in Ranchi. Two of his significant poetry collections are Hrasanta Ta (2019) and Bhurman Cheleubang (2023).