Poems by Leena Malhotra
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Lull
It’s half past three in the night a mum thirst for tea has risen darkness like a quilt has fallen over the quiet this deep hush must have been woven from several lulls it also embeds Mother’s muteness somewhere she used to remain quiet like a roof without stairs silence must still be in the chair she sat in people perish but their silence lives on So that I don’t disrupt my dead mother’s calm thinking about her at this late hour I pick up a book Mother’s face is visible over every word the sight persists the blub-blub of the boiling teawater penetrates this silence it’s as if some dead person’s heartbeat has come back of a sudden Mother’s life was also like boiling water her pain like a boil that erupts on the skin scalded with boiling water her silence like the scar that remains after a wound heals even so Mother looked beautiful while sipping tea saying even through her silence All fatigue has vanished Translated from the Hindi by Sarabjeet Garcha Piṇḍa Daan When the ghats drunk on the subtle wine of mantras pass out their steps remain awake the Ganga brings silent boats brimming with ancestors insane sons come staggering down the fragrant streets of Benaras the sons quietly knead their regret into piṇḍa dough dissolving a double handful of sadness in water they bathe their fathers the angry fathers adorned with vermilion and turmeric cannot voice the complaints which were so simple that anyone but their sons could get them and for this folly the sons should have been banished from the city but even then the fathers knew that the sons’ exile would leave the city desolate before setting out on their journey the hungry fathers eat barley and black sesame seeds from their sons’ hands kissing their helpless sons’ hands the fathers descend the ghat steps again yet again the steps of the ghats read the unspoken like daughters the air thickens with mysteries and Benaras endures like an unsolved riddle it drowns doesn’t flow Translated from the Hindi by Sarabjeet Garcha |
Leena Malhotra, based in Delhi, is a poet, film writer, and director. She has published three books of poems on social and cultural diversity. Her filmography spans Bollywood to art house cinema, with recent directorial work showcased at film festivals. She has played lead roles in two plays by renowned Indian playwrights. Her poems have been translated into several regional languages as well as Russian. English translations of her poems have appeared in the Albany University journal. A collection of her poems in English translation by Dr Anamika was published by the Sahitya Akademi. Currently she is directing a film titled An Afternoon @ Purani Dilli Ki Monalisa.
Sarabjeet Garcha is a poet, editor, translator and publisher. His five books of poems include All We Have, A Clock in the Far Past and Lullaby of the Ever-Returning, in addition to a volume each of poems translated from Marathi and prose from Hindi. He has translated several American poets into Hindi, including W.S. Merwin and John Haines, and several Indian poets into English, among them Mangalesh Dabral and Leeladhar Jagoori. He has received the Fellowship for Outstanding Artists from the Government of India, the International Publishing Fellowship from the British Council, and the Godyo Podyo Probondho Award. His poems have been translated into German, Spanish, Russian, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi, Punjabi and Hindi. He is the founder and editorial director of Copper Coin (www.coppercoin.co.in), a multilingual publishing company based in Delhi NCR.
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