TRANSLATED FROM THE HINDI BY MOULINATH GOSWAMI

Bidding Adieu to a City – 7

Atop the hillock ahead
under the babool tree,
the house, that had been abandoned half-done
years back
its bricks
are crumbling to dust
together with leaves and thorns

The throbbing material breaths
could never touch these bricks

Turning into earth, into sand
into air
your body rises from among old leaves
Tapti
like some discarded half-done house
A body
without any arms
incomplete

Where are your windows, Tapti
through which light comes in?
Where is that threshold, steeped in your ardour
that I am to cross over?

Your bricks, Tapti
together with the babool and thorns
are turning into sand
With the breeze and with time
you are turning into a ruin every moment

Tapti, an unfinished entity,
Tapti, an incomplete soul,
Tapti, is not just the name of a river
From among the melting, rotting leaves
your incomplete frame emerges, without any arm
impaled with insult, penury and thorns.

Nevertheless
you want to inch close to me
with a fresh blossom in your hand.

Bidding Adieu to a City – 8

It is right
that this battle of ours
through which we are struggling
tooth and nail
is too trifle
too ordinary

and our souls
and our bodies
are rife with deep wounds

Who shall see through our own eyes
this dreadful fight of ours?

Nevertheless we shall carve out a day
like an unscathed steel, sparkling
tempered through this difficult fire
for some greater battle lying ahead.

Also, read Bidding Adieu to a City (part I & II) , Bidding Adieu to a City (part III & IV) and Bidding Adieu To A City (Part V & VI) by Uday Prakash, translated from The Hindi by Moulinath Goswami, published in The Antonym: 

Bidding Adieu to the City, Parts I and II— Uday Prakash

Bidding Adieu to a City (part III & IV)— Uday Prakash

BIDDING ADIEU TO A CITY (PART V & VI)— UDAY PRAKASH

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