Photo Courtesy: Neela Tamang
BIO
Born on 29 April 1969Ramesh Kshitij is a poet, writer, and lyricist. He has written and many stories and songs, but he is best known for his poetry. He has published two collections of poems and a collection of short stories. A civil servant by profession, he has received many awards and honors for his writings and public service in Nepal.
BIO
Kalpna Singh-Chitnis is an Indian-American poet, writer, and Editor-in-Chief of Life and Legends. Author of Bare Soul and three collections of poems in Hindi, she received the prestigious Bihar Rajbhasha Award for her first poetry collection, Chand Ka Paivand in 1987, and the title of Bihar Shri in 1988. She is also the recipient of the 2014 Rajiv Gandhi Global Excellence Award for her contributions to literature and cinema, and the 2017 Naji Naaman Literary Prize for Creativity. Kalpna Singh-Chitnis participated in the “Silk Routes” project of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa from 2014 to 2016 and studied “Buddhism Through Its Scriptures” at HarvardX. She has published her work in notable journals like World Literature Today, California Quarterly, Levure Litteraire, Pirene’s Fountain and others. Her poetry has been translated and published in many languages.
(This poem is translated into English by Kalpna Singh-Chitnis, from the Hindi rendition of the original poem in Nepali by Suman Pokhrel.)
.
An Unnamed Story
There is a terror in the town.
The bomb squad is on alert
sighting an abandoned carry bag on the street.
The army has been investigating the situation for hours.
Who escaped the eastern horizon before dawn?
Who arrived this evening on a bus,
traveling from the western frontier?
How was his night spent?
What dreams did he see in his sleep?
What story did he carry in his heart?
Who was he looking for on then roads
and crossroads?
What was he searching for
in the noticeboards, newspapers,
and in the crowd of this cosmopolitan city?
In the end, they found
some soiled clothes,
and a picture of a village maiden in the bag.
.
अनाम कथा / रमेश क्षितिज
एकदम आतङ्क फैलिएको छ सहरमा
अवाक छ सेनाको बम डिस्पोजल टोली
र घण्टौंसम्म ओल्टाइपल्टाई हेरिरहेछ
एउटा मैलो झोला,
पूर्व क्षितिज नखुल्दै फरार हुने को थियो ऊ ?
सुदुर पश्चिमबाट दिवा सेवाको बस चढेर
को ओर्लेको थियो साँझमा ? कसरी काटेको थियो रात
र के देखेको थियो रातभरी सपना ?
कुन कथा बोकेको थियो उसले
र कसलाई खोज्दै हिडेको थियो यी गल्ली र चोकहरुमा
सूचनापाटी, अखबारका पाना र महानगरको भीडमा ?
अन्ततः झोलाभित्र भेटिए
केही मैला मैला कपडाहरु
र एक गाउँले युवतीको तस्वीर।
*****
