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        basque
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        bengali
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Nabina Das

Sanskarnama

  • 1 namami | Translations: de
  • 2 Sanskarnama
  • 3 Vivas to rivers | Translations: de
  • 4 Forever Rain | Translations: de
Language: english
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Sanskarnama

In this land dreams invite slaughter. I can see
how we want to meet in the city of hearts. But we
walk like Atwood’s women. All draped, face-shut.
Blank eyes digging holes in the stark ground.
What does a colour mean for us? What warmth it
brings I wonder. The skin of our wishes blue.
The eyes always mint-coin flicker. Hands ashen.
A woman’s body is not a scripture. Hence, shades
are brighter here. It’s about desires, demands
and blood-red hearts that arteries want. No giving up
to fate lines. How can we not see — one by one
the bodies stir in light. Up, up and about they go.
 
All about they go
and see the girdles strip off
breasts become waves. The women
take off their underwear too.
It’s time for a dip in the senses.
Bystanders aim their lenses
henchmen train their whiplashes
The fearful think witches have come.
 
In this land, praises are only for goddesses
sanskar only for the pious. No scope for flesh
to speak. No sidelining the defining rekha
that poor boy Lakshman drew. So let’s fold up
the saffron janeus and let the rivers be open
to only gurgles where you hear women rushing out
women with thighs slapping against the rude tide
women who bite the poison ivy to spit honey
on to the air. Women being women for they don’t
have to be rule-bred, nothing sacred, no ties at all.
 
Then a thousand years pass by our arteries’ throb:
In this scripture, the women rewrite the lines and shloks.

© Nabina Das
Audio production: The Enchanting Verses Literary Review

Translations:

previous poem
   (namami)
2 / 4
nächstes Gedicht
(Vivas to rivers )   
listen to all poems

Nabina Das

photo © private
* , Guwahati, India
lives in: Hyderabad, India

NABINA DAS' third poetry collection and fifth book SANSKRNAMA has been mentioned as one of the best poetry books of 2018 (OPEN Magazine). Nabina is a 2017 Sahapedia-UNESCO fellow, a 2012 Charles Wallace creative writing alumna (Stirling University), and a 2016 Commonwealth Writers Organisation feature correspondent. Born and brought up in Guwahati, Nabina's other poetry collections are Into the Migrant City  (2013), and Blue Vessel (2012). Her first novel is Footprints in the Bajra (2010) , and her short fiction volume is titled The House of Twining Roses (2014).

 photo © private
A 2012 Sangam House, a 2011 NYS Summer Writers Institute, and a 2007 Wesleyan Writers Conference alumna, Nabina writes and translates occasionally in English, Assamese and Bengali, while her poetry has been translated into the Croatian, French, Bengali, Malayalam, and Urdu. A writer-in-residence at premier universities and Creative Writing instructor in classrooms and workshops, Nabina has worked in journalism and media for about 10 years, and is the co-editor of 40 under 40, an anthology of post-globalisation poetry (2016).

Publications
  • Sanskrnama

    poetry

    2018

  • Anthology: 40 under 40, an anthology of post-globalisation poetry

    co-editor

    2016

  • The House of Twining Roses

    short fiction

    2014

  • Into the Migrant City

    poetry

    2013

  • Blue Vessel

    poetry

    2012

  • Footprints in the Bajra

    novel

    2010

Links
  • Interview with Nabina Das

    @ The Enchanting Verses Literary Review

    Website

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