Poems by Sebanti Ghosh

The Highway
 
In the freezing cold
while you shiver under two blankets
seeking comfort in the warmth of room heater,
waters of deep hatred
sprayed from the hosepipes
wash away grains of millets, sesame and flax,
from your highway!
Reading the morning newspaper,
or scrolling news down the phone screen,
you drink the second cup of tea in discomfort.
By then a long, long procession,
fencing the length of the country,
stretching across kilometres
has started growing. Keeping you out of it,
unperturbed by your measured waters,
unnamed hands, hardened with callouses
high pitched tunes, tractors, Bollywood clips of
flowing dupatta amid mustard fields
cut through the city, surrounding it
in the colours of hoe.  



Her stories 

Stories of women were bland - holding hands
encircling forests, swaying sal trees,
snares in the breasts of blossoms,
truck load of flowers spreading across the forest.
Bending down on knees, touching the ground, she says -
Ma, my offerings too - a tiny cry, wrapped in
umbilicalchords, as if a split image of you!
Soil, plants, earth, such are the tales of women.
Homes engulfed by fire, as if spring, palash and shimul.
The wretched girl had by chance learnt of slate and chalks,
and each time the firewood fell on her back instead of the kiln,
the day-and-night-chanting buried her cries.
She said - No more, Oh Ma! In this life, I shall be
the crown flower or hill glory, but a pigeon I won't be
Oh my paramour! If you be a hawk,
I would not be your prey anymore.

​
Translated by Nabanita Sengupta

A teacher by profession, Sebanti Ghosh is a poet, short story, novel writer and a translator. She studied at Visva Bharati, Santiniketan. She has received Krittivas Award and Anita Sunil Kumar Paschimbanga Bangla Academy Award. On behalf of the Sahitya Academy, he has gone to twelve cities in India and Canada to read poetry and stories. She has also received Senior Fellowship from Human Resource Department. She has one collection of poetry, three novela, a collection of short stories and two books translated from Nepali (Sahitya Akademi)

---

About the translator

Dr. Nabanita Sengupta is an academic, translator and creative writer. Her creative writings and translations have been published in Muse India, Sahitya Akademi books and journal, and many other anthologies and journals of repute. She has edited two volumes of critical writings pertaining to gender and South Asia, published by Routledge and also has a collection of poetry, In Between Selves, to her credit. She teaches in Sarsuna College, Kolkata.

---