My poem "Moloch" is published in Urhalpool, a bilingual online literary journal. Read it here or at http://www.urhalpool.com/oct2009/index.php?lang=eng&pageid=nabina_das.
Nice to find out I am published along with Meena Alexander, Hassanal Abdallah, Yuyutsu Sharma et al!
When I first started reading Urhalpool, I was struck by its sophisticated content, the beautiful covers and the phenomenal span of its writers from the US to India to Bangladesh and many more in between! "A contemporary Bengali-English bilingual webzine," Urhalpool is published periodically from New Jersey, USA. The editors are Gautam Datta (Chief); Catherine Fletcher and Shawan Sarkar (English), and Pinaki Datta (Bangla). You can read the Bangla edition here (Current Edition: Oct 2009, Vol: 2, Issue: 3).
Goutam Datta was recently in Ithaca to conduct a literary workshop with the stellar Indian writer Sunil Gangopadhayay who was visiting Cornell University for a distinguished lecture series. Invited for the first general session by Goutam, needless to say, I ran my fastest to Best Western University Inn, not so much eager about the workshop as about simply getting to meet Sunil Gangopadhayay! He is a dear old man with a youthful demeanor. I blurted out to him how much I was in awe of his "Neera" poems as a teenager --not to speak about the sweep of his stories and novels --that I even identified myself with that name and wrote a few "Neera" poems myself in Bengali! When I left he actually said, "Let me know when your book is out and show me those poems too!"
Oh, by the way, if you still haven't read the poem on Urhalpool's site, here it is!
**
MOLOCH
- by Nabina Das
It’s been long
letters did not arrive
in my name
**
like time infinite
I packed lunch, tied shoelaces
set out to work
**
pointing to a bush
on my way, casually saying,
it’s a goldfinch!
**
Just when I eyed star fruits
in the tropical backyard
a crow ate them up all
**
Such diligence wavers
my daily dithering
for it’s been really long
**
Lenin (perhaps) had asked Krupskaya:
do we need kids dear?
The Revolution is our verse
**
Likewise, it’s been long
I haven’t given birth
my verse has devoured my own.
**
Image: Courtesy Urhalpool cover art; THE BLUE SAREE - Painting by Jogen Chowdhury
2 comments:
Such diligence wavers
my daily dithering...
The initial verses are plain but climax so well in this mah-vellous expression that only you could have written!
The last verse I half understand - but it is a seed, when it will grow, I well know that in time I will have properly understood what you say. In fact, I think I know what exactly... it is only a matter of semantics...
A truly magnificent poem. This is your best in my memory, from now on!
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