~Dinesh Adhikari~
Translation: Robin Sharma
Wait! Don’t break the bangles on your wrist
The rhododendron on your plaited locks
So much suits your youthfulness
Washing your vermilion –
Stop ! Don’t ruin your looks
By tearing strings of beads
Don’t kill yourself in desires
The coruscating circular spot
Of vermilion on your forehead
Matches the luster of your cheeks.
Just because an epistle
Wound with raw thread has arrived*
I don’t agree, your man is dead
Should someone claim the deed,
He has not died in vain,
Your man ! Be proud !
He –
Has made the land fertile
The land you grow your staple diet on,
The soil of our motherland !
In these difficult times of famine
When just a few grains on the forehead
Could come handy for someone in need
He has provided for one newborn
Who craves in the cradle !
You are the wife of a soldier
Don’t you know just this much –
Your husband who they say is dead
Like vapor from water and water from vapor
Now –
Has returned as your country – secure !
And if you ask me
Listen !
A soldier never dies
If at all he does
It’s the day he takes his oath
* Such a letter wound with raw thread bears the news of death.
Dinesh Adhikari
Kathmandu
