Bairagi Kainla. Image Courtesy: Jotare Dhaiba
Born in the Panchthar district in Eastern Nepal, on August 9, 1939, and studied in both Nepal and India, Bairagi Kainla is a living legend of Nepali literature. He has published over a dozen books of poetry, prose, and translation. He has served as the chancellor of Royal Nepal Academy, and also as a life member of the Linguistic Society of Nepal. He has been the editor of Tesro Aayam (Third Dimension), in Darjeeling, India, Kavita (Quarterly), at the Royal Nepal Academy, and Limbu Language and Literature, a Tri-Lingual journal published from Nepal. He has received many literary awards in his lifetime and known for the simple and complex nature of his poetry. Freedom and love are the themes he celebrates, and often follows the tradition of Nepali folklore in his writings. Bairagi Kainla has also contributed to actively promoting the language, literature, and culture of minorities and indigenous people of 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.
(These poem are translated into English by Kalpna Singh-Chitnis, from the Hindi rendition of the original poem in Nepali by Suman Pokhrel.)
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Love and Scarf
If my love were a scarf,
I would have wrapped it around my neck,
and the day my heart was distant,
I would have hung it from a hook and left!
माया र मफलर
मेरो माया मफलर भए
बाँधिहिड्थेँ गलामा !
कैलेकाहीँ त मन नहुँदा
टाँगिंहिड्थेँ किलामा!
My Love
My love is a love letter of a firefly, to a fire.
My love is a love letter of the earth, to the cosmos.
My love is the love letter of an ocean, to its origin.
My love is a love letter, to love itself.
मेरो माया
मेरो माया शलभसितको दीपको प्रेमपत्र
मेरो माया अवनिसितको व्योमको प्रेमपत्र
मेरो माया उदधिसितको स्रोतको प्रेमपत्र
मेरो माया अब हजुरको प्रेमको प्रेमपत्र
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After a Tea at Her Home , Before Leaving
Today, with the audacity to see you, your honor,
I had come
flaunting my gait.
Today, to be my best at your service,
I had hitched myself
for our date.
Thank you for your generosity!
Thank you for the tea!
What else I can say,
I forgot everything that I had come to convey for sure.
Maybe you can help identify
these bashful images,
that have lived in my eyes are
by any chance yours.
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चिया पिइसकेर उसको घरबाट हिँड्ने बेलामा
आज, मेरो हजुर–को
दर्शनार्थ— धृष्टता गरौँकि भनेर
इः, यसरी गुन्डिएर आएकोथिएँ
आज, मेरो हजुर–को
सेवार्थ के–के भनौँकि भनेर
इः, यसरी झुन्डिएर आएको थिएँ
शिष्टताका निम्ति साधुवाद ।
चियाका निम्ति धन्यवाद ।
अरू के भनौँ…
सब बिर्सिएँ, जे–जे भनौँ भनेर आएको थिएँ।
हेर्नुहोस्…
यी आँखामा जो लजाइरहेका तस्बिर थिए
मेरो हजुरकै हुन् कि भनेर
चिनाउन आएको थिएँ।
*****
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