Thirtha 11 The bus conductor thunders, “Haaji Ali,”above the muezzin’s pitch, above cymbals clashingaround the corner by the jasmine vendors. I wait among garish women on a ribbon of road at the head of the bay,where double-decker buses hurtle into town, the domerising behind me, white and gleaming at low tide.Crows and gulls wing about, searching.On…
Book Title: What’s Wrong with us Kali Women?Author: (Author): Anita NahalPublisher and Date: Kelsay Books (August 9, 2021)Reviewer: Megha Sood This riveting collection of seventy prose poems exposes the artful mastery of lyrical intensity seeded in Nahal’s poetic craft through which she brilliantly brings out the spectrum of human emotions. The poet speaks with razor-sharp clarity and a deep…
by Maria Magdalena Biela Romanian poetry represents an integral part of European literature. However, it is vastly unexplored. Linguistic researchers, translators, readers, and historians have not truly discovered and adequately documented the history of Romanian Literature. Such an amputation of an important part of world literature defeats the universal culture. In the space between the…
In our continuing efforts to bring international literature to our readers, we are pleased to bring the 11th edition of “Life and Legends,” focused on Romanian poetry, which includes works of significant Romanian poets of the 20th and 21st centuries. This cornucopia of classic and modern Romanian poetry is a generous gift from our guest editor Maria Magdalena Biela, a Romanian writer, translator, and scholar based in Finland.
Book Title: What Survives Is The SingingAuthor: Shanta AcharyaPublisher: Indigo Dreams Publishing Ltd, Devon, 2020Date of Publication: February 2020ISBN #: 978-1912876211Reviewer: Sarah Lawson What Survives Is The Singing (the title is a reference to Bertolt Brecht’s lines “Yes, there will also be singing / About the dark times”) sings us many songs about our own…
INSANI FATUM When I was bornThere were no angels waiting for me,There were no magicians in the backyard,No relatives present,Not drunk prophets;There was no one to drawBeneficial lines in my birth chartOr whoever reads in the golden placentaUnique plots, unpublished destinations;Ariadne, Virgil, Ovid were absent;Only Sisyphus celebrated my arrival:……………_ At last I will be replaced!…
Mu Us Desert, Encountering a Herder Too Old to Have Consciousness Paler than the belly of a dead fishAnd more pallid than salt and alkaliThe desert now is dwelling in his earsIn his eyesIn his sweat pores and hair folliclesAnd in his throat From his aged flesh drained by the sunNo more grease or moisture…
A Free Snowman I have deserved the gratitude of Italy.I have contributed to their history,To people, art and culture, by and large:I gave them snow. And plenty. Free of charge. Italians, captured on the River Don,Were packed and convoyed in a cattle carAll starved and thirsty, barely hanging onAll hoping that their end was not…
The Jahaz Mahal in Mandu boasted of one of the most sophisticated water harvesting, treatment and distribution systems, far ahead of their times. With no groundwater nor aquifers, this hill fort town at a height of 2000 ft above sea level was entirely dependent on rain water for its sustenance. Built during the reign of…
The Girl wore red pheran and watched the sunset for the first time in months. There were many visitors sauntering on the way of Ghats of Srinagar’s most famous Dal Lake. The wind had a strange echo hidden. That is felt before news of someone’s death. The old must have been dead by now, thought…
Eka More Gaaner Tori (Translated from the original Bengali) A solitary traveler I wasRowing the boat of my music in the stream of my tears.Who are you, the sudden entrant that came alongTo row the boat with me? That which was an illusory dream, a figment of my fertile imaginationEmerged before me in flesh and…
A Gust of Wind Curtains are being blown in:asailing boat has crushed into our room,it filled the air with the sea,with blue salt. Parquet on the deck.Salty splashes on the papered walls…Wind with a rose in its teeth,like with a naval boarding sword,had toppled the vase overand is climbing up the carpet.A split second –…
