Katyayani
BIO
Katyayani is an Indian poet of Hindi language. She is the author of ‘Footpath Par Kursi’ (2009), ‘Jadu Nahi Kavita’ (2002), ‘Saat Bhaiyon Ke Beech Champa’ (1994). Her poems have been translated into English and Russian.
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Shelly Bhoil
BIO
Shelly Bhoil is a Brazil-based writer from India. Her works include a poetry book An Ember from Her Pyre (Writers Workshop), and two reference books on Tibet—(co-editor) Negotiating Dispossession: Tibetan Subjectivities on the Global Stage and (editor) Resistant Hybridities: New Narratives of Exile Tibet (forthcoming)—published by Lexington Books.
(Poems Translated from the original Hindi)
A Woman’s Rumination in Solitude
To breathe a sigh of relief
the woman
beckons her solitude
She touches her solitude
talks to it
lives it
drinks it in silence
One fine day,
she doesn’t speak to her solitude
makes no effort
to share her sorrow
She just becomes thoughtful
The moment
she begins to think
in solitude,
she is
declared
dangerous
even before she has arrived at a conclusion!
स्त्री का सोचना एकान्त में
चैन की एक साँस
लेने के लिए स्त्री
अपने एकान्त को बुलाती है।
एकान्त को छूती है स्त्री
संवाद करती है उससे।
जीती है
पीती है उसको चुपचाप।
एक दिन
वह कुछ नहीं कहती अपने एकान्त से
कोई भी कोशिश नहीं करती
दुख बाँटने की
बस, सोचती है।
वह सोचती है
एकान्त में
नतीजे तक पहुँचने से पहले ही
ख़तरनाक घोषित कर दी जाती है !
Not having a body
The woman is not her body
for a day
and
the entire world
turns upside down
right there!
The woman came to fear the poet
The woman became
the poet’s blue-eyed.
She got embodied
in every single poem.
This is how
the woman came to fear the poet.
देह न होना
देह नहीं होती है
एक दिन स्त्री
और उलट-पुलट जाती है
सारी दुनिया
अचानक !
.
Prayer
God,
So that I could have pride
give me a chance to speak the truth,
for I may do charity
give me a golden opportunity God.
Give me food God, so that I
may stay alive
to worship you.
Send some poor
on my door,
I want to feed the hungry.
God, so that I can make a donation
give me gold coins.
God, give me a faithful wife, an obedient son
an intelligent brother and a decent neighbor.
God, give me a happy life
in this world so that in old age
I may worry about the afterworld.
God,
my soul is writhing
for atonement,
so that I may sin
give me a woman!
She creates life and…
Woman is created so that men can carry
their bloodline through their son like deities. Rigveda Sahita
Woman was created solely to carry the bloodline
to create life,
they said four-thousand years ago
while founding the social law.
But they forgot that
nothing can be created
without giving some thought.
Whatever is created does think.
She creates
life
and thinks about life ceaselessly.
She wonders
what must be the center point of life
she wonders
what must be the beauty of life
she wonders
what is it without which everything is incomplete
love, beauty, motherhood…
she wonders
and questions in a sharp outcry.
The echo reverberates
in valleys, in fields
in mountains, slamming the high waves of the sea
Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!
प्रार्थना
प्रभु !
मुझे गौरवान्वित होने के लिए
सच बोलने का मौक़ा दो
परोपकार करने का
स्वर्णिम अवसर दो प्रभु मुझे।
भोजन दो प्रभु, ताकि मैं
तुम्हारी भक्ति करने के लिए
जीवित रह सकूँ।
मेरे दरवाज़े पर थोड़े से ग़रीबों को
भेज दो
मैं भूखों को भोजन कराना चाहता हूँ।
प्रभु, मुझे दान करने के लिए
सोने की गिन्नियाँ दो।
प्रभु, मुझे वफ़ादार पत्नी, आज्ञाकारी पुत्र,
लायक़ भाई और शरीफ़ पड़ोसी दो।
प्रभु, मुझे इहलोक में
सुखी जीवन दो ताकि बुढ़ापे में
परलोक की चिन्ता कर सकूँ।
प्रभु,
मेरी आत्मा प्रायश्चित करने के लिए
तड़प रही है
मुझे पाप करने के लिए
एक औरत दो !
*****
