Sarifa Khatoon Chowdhury’s Poem

Issue: Vol. IV, No. 4, February-April, 2026

In Search of Immortal Words

Every man is in search of immortal words
But none knows
What those words are in a procession.

Love, peace or conversation in a dream
The truth of life or death
Or the musk deer pain
In a hidden corner of the heart.

Every man is a nomad
A pilgrim of words
In an endless caravan
Someday I stay
With myself
Just as you with yourself.

Another day
I stay with you
And you with me.

That’s the difference.

Again and again
We exchange introduction
May be the words which were light
Resided there unknown.

We forget in a moment
Dementia
Everyone suffers from dementia
All faces are familiar
All are strangers.

Translated by Ananda Bormudoi

Original Assamese poem.

Sarifa Khatoon Chowdhury is an Assamese poet and novelist based in Doomdooma, Assam. She has two collections of poems to her credit. She is a Consulting Editor of PWF.