Sankha Ghosh

translated from the original Bengali by
Bhismadev Chakrabarti

All the rest are poems of death, just this one is of life
All the rest are poems of my own, just this one is yours
All the rest are poems that are stopped, hesitant – remnants of ambition frozen on the lips
       flooded monsoon streets with open manholes spewing sewage
       wounded bleeding bodies left behind by tires after tires and
       a bridge collapsing
All the rest are poems about cities, just this one is about the country.

All the rest are poems of death, just this one is of life
All the rest are poems of my own, just this one is yours
This one is of the wild sea, of all the pains that were yet to be shared
       of the one who walked into the waves one spring, without a reason
       of laughing people bending double, letting the wind seep in with the dust
       of leaves flying away in thousands, speaking of impending storms
All the rest are poems of the Ganga, just this one is about the Yamuna.

Published October, 2011

Translated by Bhismadev Chakrabarti

Illustrated by Ananya Das. Author of several books and an illustrator, Ananya Das is based in Pennsylvania.