Translated from the Hindi to the English by Mridula Nath Chakraborty
blue
blue coloured weals
would form
on body on heart
blows of forced labour and insult
remember?
the pot hanging from the neck
the broom tied to the waist
the rope on the broom
bubbling up drops of blood
just under the skin
green wounds red bruises
turning blue then black
leaving behind their indelible marks
bloodying the mind
though there isn’t today
the rope around the neck
the broom at the waist
the broken-sounding bamboo board
in the hands
but why don’t they go away
those blue marks?
Hemlata Mahishwar is Head and Professor at the Department of Hindi, Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi. She is the author of a poetry collection,
Samyak Marg (The Right Path) , an anthology of stories
Beech Dakhal Bedakhal and criticism,
Stri Lekhan Aur Samay Ke Sarokaar and
Unki Jijivika Unka Dangarsha, both published by Hindi Book Centre in 2006.
Mridula Nath Chakraborty has edited
Being Bengali: at home and in the world, an enquiry into the intellectual history of this linguistic group from Bangladesh and India (Routledge 2014). She is the co-editor of
Abohelaar Bhangon Naame Booke / Broken by Neglect, a bilingual edition of Nunga poet Ali Cobby Eckermann’s poetry from English to Bengali (2014) and
A Treasury of Bangla Stories (1997). Most recently, she has convened high-impact projects in literary-cultural diplomacy between Australia and India, such as
Australia-India Literatures International Forum (Sydney 2013), the
Autumn School in Literary Translation (Kolkata 2013) and
Literary Commons: Writing Australia-India in the Asian Century with Indigenous, Dalit and Multilingual Tongues (2014-2016).
