मेरी 'सानु' सित : With my ‘Sanu’  

Sanu!

Today too I returned home without bringing a story.

At the market,

There is no magical country No province of the fairies.

There aren’t any princes coming on horses-elephants back

There aren’t any pigeons & birds flying singing songs

To hold your imaginary village

This world is too narrow Sanu

Today too I returned empty without carrying a story 

In the market but there are 

-Standing over the industrious heart Lazy sleepiness.

-In the interiorized hearts

The brightness of kerosene lamp

Nearby

Swaying with a puffed chest in the wires and cables 

The electrical glitters

-Life in the heart

carrying death in the shoulder and patrolling 

The unfortunate wounds

-Draped by some invisible fear

Running amok 

The vehicles-people

And the people-vehicles 

Sanu!

At market, there aren’t the imaginary brightness-es of your story

At market there aren’t any savoury ‘endings’ of your story

At the market but,

Lying down bearing the logos of ‘company!- company!’

Tongues after tongues, tastes there are

There the price of your tender smile

Is carried by the worth of your Ba-Aama.

There the price of your tender desires 

Are determined by the weights and scales.

Sanu!

I won’t give you the false stories of the market.

But for you to stand in the midst of this market

I’ll give you the silence of my self respect suppressed behind my eyes,

You hold my finger

And look out

See with your own eyes

The story of people whose paces lost balance

The story of people whose melodies went astray

Amidst the magic-emptied market

What kind of dreams do you see Sanu?

The kind of dreams you want to see

See it with your own eyes 

The kind of path you want to walk

Walk with your own footsteps 

Just Sanu!

In the midst of the market

I shall walk with you for only a while

For life too is just for a while

My little princess 

You don’t go to any fairy-province

Where the sobs of father-grandfather blow as a breeze

The mountain stood on the bones and ribs

The country of sweat

Go there carrying our stories.

Go there carrying our songs.

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Poet Bio- Tika ‘Bhai’ from Kalimpong, India is a poet, actor and a cultural activist. He is author to many books like Paitala Talatira, Hamro Jati Mukti Sangharsha ko Saya Barsa and his recent publication Kaanchko Pokhari. He is the recipient of Yuva Sahitya Akademi Award in 2014 for his book on poetry Paitala Talatira .

Translator- Shivam Sharma Kharel is a research scholar and a translator from Madarihat, West Bengal.