~Manoj Bogati~
Translation : Bhupendra Subba
Ancestor bones are discovered
Wherever dug
This is Teeth.
This has chewed down an age.
It has bitten Time to dust and repaired a house-wall.
This is Shin-bone.
A monk in a village invokes for peace
Blowing this with his mouth
During uneasy hours,
A procession passes through the town
Crying slogans
Of “Long Live”
Of “Down With”
While he is still blowing
The news of someone hacking time’s head to death
Is published in the news-magazine
The very next day
And this is spine,
Folk-story
For descendants wearing bamboo-spines
Don’t know what bone is this.
It’s broken so bluntly
Looks like it split
As it fell into the pit of some evil design
This skull
Wearing a fatal cut-mark of a khukuri
Was grounded under
Intellectuals talk of analyzing history threadbare,
I dug up in the patio at the front
Only to uncover my own placental lump
I think I am digger
Who knows no digging!
___________________________
Manoj Bogati lives in Gangtok. He published “Bimbagosti” in 2008. He recently received the Yuva Sahitya Akademi Puraskar– 2013 during a programme held at Srimal Shankardev Kala Shetra Auditorium, Panjabari, Guwahati.
(Source : Teesta Rangeet – Poetry Journal – Issue #4)
