What I Was Not
I kept thinking, thinking, thinking
That I would say this, think that
I kept thinking the livelong day
But hesitating, I kept living somewhere else
Not even in slumber
Did it come to me unbeknownst
What I was not.
***
Days
Yet another day has passed by
But I don’t think about the arrears of days anymore
I don’t save for tomorrow and thereafter either
Another day has passed
But this time I am there
With the luxury of time in my hands.
A language with merely ten alphabets
Will that be able to contain the vastness of creation?
The days write furtive meanings on the eyes
That remain closed to the horizons of meaning
In those letters,
Erase, and then forget.
***
Also Read: Pedong: Poetry Nestled in Himalayas
I Look for Questions, Not Answers
Casually, in the midst of a conversation,
You say something important
One moment in the afternoon
Truth always arrives clad in surprise
I don’t have an answer
I look for questions
Not within myself
I search for you.
***
What was Old is New
So new was it in a way
That it always sold elsewhere
Among hordes of buyers in splendid shops
Invisible to a few searching eyes
When light gleams on this object
In a particular way
In attractive prices and affordable installments
With promises of free delivery in tow
With the glow of bumper sales
It will sell soon
It is sold
What was old is new
Or is it just me who arrived late with list of promises
Absent again to purchase,
The time that I once sold.
Image Courtesy: Istock
Born on March 9, 1964, Mohan Rana is a Hindi poet. He has published ten volumes of Hindi poetry and his poems have been translated in various Indian and European languages. He is a resident of Bath, England, although he was born and brought up in Delhi, India. He writes variously on memory, nostalgia, identity and nature, and his writings have cemented his place as a diasporic poet. His latest collections include The Cartographer and Ekant Me Roshandan.
Rituparna Mukherjee teaches English and Communication Studies at Jogamaya Devi College, Kolkata. She is a published poet and enjoys writing short fiction and flashes. A multilingual translator, translating Bengali and Hindi fiction into English, her work has been published in many international journals. Her debut translation, The One Legged, authored by Sakyajit Bhattacharya, has been shortlisted for the JCB Prize for Literature 2024.
