RAJENDRA BHANDARI (India)
Rajendra Bhandari is a well-known Nepali poet, and an excellent translator too. At present, Rajendra Bhandari is teaching at Sikkim Government College,Gangtok

These words : These Lines

The naked sky is the witness.
Sultry sun is the witness.
These words,
I haven’t coughed out
from nowhere.
I’ve picked them
When they were wrenching in the scorching noon
Over the footpaths of city’s highways.
I haven’t materialised these lines
by the sleight of my hand.
Reclaiming them from sliding land
I’ve lifted them from
the forests, the lowlands,
the grainfields, the cliffs.
These words may sound spurious
Like marketplace jokers.
They may appear sly and conspiring
But small tracks shouldering a big train
Is a reality.
Countless pebbles labouring the rail is a greater reality.
Ignore this poem.
Don’t listen to me.
But these luxuriant forest-trees
picked by the woodpeckers,
Is a truth.
Else why should the Nyahul bird weep?
Nyahul’s continuous weep is more real.

– Translated from Nepali by M. Giri