The Number of the Graves in History
The number of the graves in history Has been steadily rising Many a true story unrecorded The weeping of many characters Get lost in the unfathomable depth of darkness History is rewritten when necessary The manuscript of truth cries out In cunning dark passages Bagh Hazarika who was flesh and blood Gets forgotten like Joymoti History is forgotten It is merciless Absolutely unendurable Can you tell me Hard times Will rivers flow upstream Or we make a retreat Will new buildings Built on the graveyards collapse Will ever a green forest grow In the desert stretching far away
The Hanging Wall Clock
The hanging wall clock That needs winding Is rare now a days. One or two families May have it. But the mild ringing Of the bell still resonates Under the sky. Time has never been arrested By the hands of the clock. Its a false charge. Time never gets old It's always bright With new creations. Man and his history Turn dusty pages. The king dies The subjects die The trees die . Something perishes Something remains But who keeps a record? The flowing river becomes All pebbles And nobody keeps a record. You cannot row a boat Over the pebbles. Nobody feels sad over it. But the pendulum of the old clock Swings and ticks In each heart.
[Translated by Ananda Bormudoi]
Sarifa Khatoon Chowdhury is a contemporary Assamese poet based in Doomdooma, Tinsukia. She has two collections of poems to her credit.