Poetry from Nepal by Nabin Pyassi, translated by Haris C Adhikari
Sometimes I feel—
.
Why does the breeze
Not blow only for itself, why
Does the sun
Not say, ‘I’ll rise only in palaces?’
Why do the rivers
Not say, ‘This comes in other’s frontier?’
.
What happens if
The clouds get angry,
And soils sprout
Only weeds?
What happens if
Our own heart forgets
Our body?
.
I myself stand
In the dock, and question—
.
Why, without any fear,
Do flowers bloom?
Why don’t birds claim, ‘The sky is only ours!’
Why, without regret,
Do roads spill their nakedness
Far and wide?
.
Why does the mountain
Not keep on freezing
But melt as well? Why do
Nights have to take their leave, though reluctantly?
Why doesn’t the winter scream, saying
‘Let no new leaves sprout!’
.
Why do babies come carrying
A great mountain of suffering
In the wombs and from the wombs?
Who
Do the cracked heels tease
Over and over again, grinning?
Why,
Why do revolutions always stand
On the
Labourers’ backs?
.
Placing my palm lines
On my forehead, I question—
.
Why does the dustbin refuse
To clean its own appearance? Why
Does the guitar not accept
The tunes brought to life
With my inexperienced fingers? Why
Do our own eyes
Not see ourselves
As ‘beautiful’?
.
Why doesn’t the mirror show
My frustrations, my vanities, and my sins?
.
Why doesn’t
Time take
Commands of people?
Poets Bio:
Nabin Pyassi (b. Dec. 21, 1995) an aspiring poet and an avid reader of poetry, hails from Khotang district. He is pursuing his studies from Tribhuvan University, with English literature and sociology as his majors. Most of his poetic works are romantic, insightful and metaphysical as well as deeply rooted to the native soil.
Translator’s Bio:
Haris C Adhikari, a widely published poet and translator from Nepal, and an MPhil scholar in English language, teaches at Kathmandu University. He has three books poetry and literary translation to his credit. Adhikari’s creative and scholarly works have appeared in numerous national and international journals. Until 2017, he edited Misty Mountain Review, an online journal of short poetry. Currently, he co-edits Polysemy, a journal of interdisciplinary scholarship, published out of DoMIC, Kathmandu University. He can be reached at haris.adhikari@ku.edu.np
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