Because they do not have a permanent home The birds are always free from the worries of land and property They make a nest at the time of hatching The fledglings fly away as they grow wings The nest drops down as it rots As they do not have a permanent home to call their own They cannot be blinded by the longings for their kin So they can fly away to reach the horizon With their partners at their own will Therefore it’s only them who can enjoy the pleasure of getting drenched in rain with their partners Translated from Assamese by Bibekandanda Choudhury
The Birds
Guna Moran, Sadiqul Islam and Bikekananda Choudhury
Guna Moran is an Assamese poet and critic. His poems and literary pieces are published in national and international magazines, journals, webzines, newspapers, and anthologies such as Tuck Magazine, Merak, Spillword, Setu, Story Mirror, Glomag, Poem Hunter, The Sentinel, The Hills Times, Litinfinite, Best Poetry, Academy of the Heart and Mind, The Creation Times, Infinite Sky, International Anthology of Poems on Autism, International Anthology on Water (Waco Fest Anthology 2019), International Anthology on TIME, THE VASE: 12th Guntur International Poetry Fest Anthology 2019, POETICA: The Inner Circle Writer’s Group Poetry Anthology 2019, Nocturne (Poetry of the Night: An Anthology, Phantasmagoria Magazine, Quiddity Magazine, and LLP Poetry Anthology. His poems have been translated into Italian, French, and Bangla.
Sadiqul Islam, born in 1969 in Assam, India, is presently an Associate Professor in English in Moirabari College. He earned his Master’s in English Literature from Gauhati University and is presently pursuing his doctoral research at the same university. He translates mainly from Assamese to English, and his English translations have appeared in a good number of reputed journals including Indian Literature, Sahitya Akademi’s bi-monthly journal. He has one collection of translated poems to his credit titled One Hundred Poems of Harekrishna Deka published by Papyrus, Guwahati.
Bikekananda Choudhury, an electrical engineer by profession working with the State of Government of Assam, has completed his master’s from BITS-Pilani. He has also earned a diploma in French language from Gauhati University. He has published works (both original and translated) in Assamese, Bengali, and English in popular periodicals and newspapers. His translated poems have been published in Indian Literature, the bi-monthly journal of Sahitya Akademy. Suryakatha, his Bengali adaptation is being taught in the undergraduate courses of Banglore University and post-graduate courses at Gauhati University. A collection of 101 folk tales from the foothills of Patkai translated by him has also been taken up for publication by Gauhati University. He is presently editor-in-chief of Dimorian Review, a multidisciplinary web journal.