The Temple
-Translated by Dr Ananda Bormudoi
While digging a tank
In the forest reserve
One and a half feet underground
They found an old manuscript.
If they had set up an altar
And a school grew up there
As naturally as a tree!
This is unlikely
It did not happen anywhere
And in anytime
A manuscript cannot remain
Unrotten underneath
Like a metal image.
[…]
মন্দিৰ
-প্ৰকল্প ৰঞ্জন ভাগৱতী
ৰিজাপৰ মাটিত
পুখুৰী খান্দোতে
ডেৰহাত দ-ত ওলাল
পুৰণি পুথি৷
থাপনা থাপি
এখন স্কুল তাতে
উঠিলহেঁতেন যদি গজি!
এনে নঘটে
ক’তো
কাহানিও,
কিয়নো
মাটিত নজহি থাকিবলৈ
পুথি নহয় ধাতুৰ মূৰ্তি৷
Prakalpa Ranjan Bhagawati is an Indian writer and translator who writes in Assamese, the major language of Assam in North-East India. He has drawn wide critical attention through his first collection of poems titled 'Baladharohi Aru Anyanya Kabita' (The Bullock Rider and Other Poems) published in 2021. He is one of the members of a group of poets and critics who streamlined Parbantarar Padya (a New Chapter for Verse), by publishing a manifesto in 2020 to consider and reconsider certain issues related to Assamese poetry. His poems have appeared in Modern Poetry in Translation; Muse India; Guftgu etc.
Dr. Ananda Bormudoi is a literary critic and translator based in Guwahati, Assam. He translates from Assamese language to English and vice versa. He has several books in Assamese and English to his credit. He retired as a HOD of English, Dibrugarh University, Assam.
