Issue: Vol. IV, No. 1, May-July, 2025
Lamentation of grief in empty hearts
The heart-breaking night left
With the news
Of the missing people.
No ice in any heart melts
In the heart-rending walls of the cuckoo
That go on thumping their heads
On the tall walls
Only the silence of the night breaks
Empty hearts grow restless.
In the night's veiling of mist
The labyrinthine paths (where people lose their way)
Release their kids
Some slump down to rest for the night
Clasping the gloaming light to their bosoms
The missing people open the face-covering masks
In the wind.
Translated by Krishna Dulal Barua
Renu Bhuyan is an Assamese poet based in Doomdooma, Tinsukia, Assam. She has published one collection of poems.
Krishna Dulal Barua is a prominent translator and writer based in Nagaon, Assam. He received the Katha Award for translation in 2005.