Translated from the Kunkana to the English by Rupalee Burke
Limbe panting at the fourth step of the stairs

How he once roved hills and vales

Untiringly

No sooner he hit the pillow would he fall fast asleep.

When his wife shook him from slumber

Awake he would

Weighing equal to a four maund male buffalo

With great difficulty

Then

Mumble to himself: Truly!

None there is like me.

Seated at the dining table

Paneer-handi curry to eat

Uncovered basket with parathas in it

Chikus, apples and bread-butter too.

Everything but the heart missing.

Back then Shevla, bhopid, alim, ambadi, vans,

Umbra, anla, keri, karamda, timru

And

Flowers of all hues!

Pockets stuffed with siridoda blossoms

That’s what you would call a feast! Truly health-giving.

Here withered vegetables

Pulses cultivated with chemical fertilisers and rotting fruits

This is what makes the doctor proclaim

It is this … It is that …

Eat this … Drink that …

No way comparable to the bhagats, our own medicine-men

No matter what sickness, they cured without a fee

This mop of hair, do you see?

White as white can be

While

Rinsing hair with sticky mud

Those elders there bearing no trace of age!

Cannot think of sitting without a chair

Whereas yoking male buffaloes elders plough the fields!

Sweetness of ice-cream pales when it comes to

Goat milk thickened with drops of the karvat tree

Thoughts come by the dozen

Thoughts … Thoughts …

Shrugging them off, had barely put on the television

When

Not the television, wifey said:

Will need money, the roof is leaking.

Oh God …

How much can one earn?

There is no hunger! Yet no happiness!

One life, a million worries

Roof of teak leaves elders made in no time

In return for a meager charge.

Haunted by a host of thoughts … Sleep eluded the eyes

Memories of teacher arose in my mind

If you do not complete your work I will drive you out, he would say.

How much work I have accomplished yet no compassion-love.

Hard as stone are people here

None to call our own even within family

Feeling drowsy while turning sides

Fell asleep.

Trin trin rang the doorbell

Who is it? Wifey answered the doorbell.

Oh … Mother … Father … Mother-in-law …

Limbe sprang up from his bed

Why Mother … Father …

Indigestion … Digested …

Pain … Cured …

Mother had brought food tied in a bundle

Knot was undone

Ate to heart’s content

Then

Burping aloud

Wiped his mouth with his mother’s sari

Much like a bubble

In a hushed tone

Muttered: I am full!

That is where life resides!!!