Om Nagar: Translated by Abhay K.

BIO

Om Nagar (b.1980) writes in Rajasthani. He was awarded the Youth Prize by the Sahitya Akademi, Bhartiya Gyanpith and Pakhi literary journal and has published 9 books in Hindi- Rajasthani and in translation.

 

BIO

Abhay K. is a poet and editor. He has published six collection of poems including The Eight-Eyed Lord of Kathmandu (The Onslaught Press, UK) and The Seduction of Delhi (Bloomsbury). He is the editor of CAPITALS (Bloomsbury) and 100 Great Indian Poems (Bloomsbury). He received the SAARC Literary Award 2013. His Earth Anthem has been translated into 30 languages.

 

(Translated from the original Rajasthani into English by Abhay K.)

                                                                  .

 

Your Trust
 
How fast collapses
your trust
like a pack of cards

If I had met you at the grocer’s shop
I had put two handfuls of trust long ago
in your wounded palms

like sand castles
your trust collapses
as soon as I withdraw my feet

you throw in the sky with your hands
walls, verandahs and those little windows
where you place an earthen lamp every night to light up inside

sometimes your trust perches on the top of date-palms
and I start digging shadows
deeper I dig, deeper the trust grows.

थांरौ बस्वास

सतूळ की नांई
कतनो बैगो ढसड़ जावै छै
थांरौ बस्वास
बाणियां की दुकान पै
मिलतौ हो तो
कदी को धर देतो
थारी छाला पड़ी हथेळी पै
दो मुट्ठी बस्वास।

बाळू का घर की नांई
पग हटता ईं
कण-कण को हो जावै छै
थांरौ बस्वास।

खुद आपणै हाथां
आभै पै ऊलाळ देवै छै तू
भींत, देहळ अर वे आळ्यां बी
जठी रोजीना धर देवै छै तू
अेक दियौ म्हैलाडी का उजास कै लेखै

कदी-कदी थांरौ बस्वास जा बैठे छै
खज्यूर का टोरक्यां पै
अर म्हूं खोदबा लाग जाऊ छूं
छाँवळी
जतनी ऊंडी खुदती जावै छै
भरम की धरणी
उतनो ई बदतौ जावै छै बस्वास।।

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