Wednesday, October 7, 2020

From Pratik's Upcoming Issue: Nepalese poet Shyam Rimal's Poems, "Relief" translated by Yuyutsu Sharma

 

SHYAM RIMAL

Relief

 


Rice is infested,

stale and smelly

 

potatoes rotten,

piles of lentils creepy-crawly

 

and sacks of

salt out-of-date

 

without a glint

of iodine.

 

Relief comes

rolling on polished wheels

 

Relief comes

flying on airplanes

 

Black money

arrives disguised as social service

 

Relief comes

to take a snapshot with

 

just one sack of rice,

salt, lentils and sugar.

 

At that juncture

the government goes to sleep

 

and relief-seekers

rush back to the streets

 

to start banging

their empty begging bowls again.

 

To wait for disasters

to beg endlessly and

 

along the arrival

of pandemics and plagues

 

spread their homespun

blanket of helplessness --

 

all this seems amiss along

the lines of our nation’s glorious map.

 

This is what defines

true face of our nation

 

where the essence

of NGOs, INGOs

 

and Government agencies

mingles into one rotten core

 

wherein, one after

the other, the pandemic relief funds

 

are mounted up

a mighty threshold 


to fuel festivities

in the house of higher gods

 

and elsewhere

enduring calamity

 

the cold hearths

continue to shiver

 

without a trace

of livid flames

 

warming fragile walls

of their hungry huts.

 

Translated from the Nepali by Yuyutsu Sharma

 

Shyam Rimal is a known Nepali journalist and poet. He has published several books, most noted being, Trishuliko Kinarabaat. He contributes literary columns to several vernacular newspapers, including Drishti Weekly and  works as editor at National New Agency, Kathmandu. 




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