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Dr Rati Saxena
Published in November 2006 Issues Translit
Section
(Her own translation)
Dr Rati Saxena - is an eminent Hindi poet, translator and student
of INDOLOGY.She is the editor of a bilingual web journal for poetry-www.kritya.in
She has authored three collections of poems in Hindi and one in English and
Malayalam (in translation). Besides, she has written several research articles
on Vedic literature and Indology and published critical studies. Her poems are
translated in different languages including Malayalam, Punjabi, Konkani and
Tamil Rati Saxena’s poetry represented in various journals of other part of
world like –Verasal ( Amsterdam, Netherlands and printed in Prague), Edgar
literary Magazine (Texas) and gumball poetry etc. She has established a sound
reputation as an academic critic. Rati Saxena has translated 10 books from
Malayalam to Hindi. Translations of some of the most well known Malayalam poems
and novels have earned her nation-wide respect and recognition. She has written
a book on famous poet of Malayalam -Balamaniyamma. Among the several awards she
has received, the most coveted is the Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award for
Translation in 2000. She is also a recipient of the prestigious Indira Gandhi
National Culture and Arts Fellowship, which helped her complete this
path-breaking work “A seed of mind-a fresh approach to Atharvavedic study".
Eight Bars and One Window
One window and eight bars
cut into eight parts
a coconut tree, and peeping from behind it,
a leafy jackfruit tree.
Some bird calls.
Some kid bawls.
Some plane crosses.
One day’s done.
**
Between Khajuraho’s statues and Bastar’s figurines,
a vase of pens.
On this window-sill, see the whole country.
Wait,
Don’t forget, even the puppets of Gujarat
hang from these bars!
***
If this was not a window
Would it be a picture?
Then the leaves wouldn’t move
The birds wouldn’t sing
And I would be not on the inside
But on the outside.
****
I’m behind the window.
The window’s in front of me.
Is that the same thing?
*****
A house in front of the window
A crane on the porch
Wings open, neck stretched
Wants to fly in the sky
But
Claws stuck in wet cement:
I felt restless
******
Beyond the window, a house
Beyond the house, yet another house
Beyond again, perhaps a valley
with wind like a bouncing ball
that leaps up and lands in here,
through the window
The window, and I
started to laugh.
*******
As soon as the window opens
my held breath stirs.
********
The taste of last night’s dream
persists on the tongue.
I want to narrate my dream to the window
But as soon as I open my mouth,
my dream slips out
and hangs on a branch like a ghoul.
My very own dream, now outside the window.
While I’m inside.
*********
People are being banished
from their homes.
People abandon
their homes.
It is not the fault of the window.
To move out
You need a door.
**********
Leaves, trunk, tree...
lost in the darkness.
The window’s awake,
Hopes to be the first to see
the morning light.
************
She draws a picture
of a masked
armed man.
Then she tears up the picture.
This is how she takes revenge
for the murder of her friend.
Her anger has gone
out of the window.
************
He doesn’t want to rule
a kingdom.
He wants to rule galaxies.
He doesn’t like bars.
He doesn’t mind windows.
*************
A loud flap of wings.
I looked out of the window and
saw some fallen wings.
I looked in.
Where did my wings go?
**************
Father loved this saying:
“When an ant die, it grows wings”
He said this whenever our dreams
seemed ready to take-off.
***************
Today, as soon as I open the window,
Many sayings rush in.
I take a good look and then
toss them in the bin.
I never knew when
they had come in,
crossing boundaries.
Two sets of eyes are
staring at me
(September----.2005)
Copyrights @ Dr Rati Saxena
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