The Bamboo / Mukunda Prayas

Why did you carve my name

on that bamboo amidst the bamboo bush

by etching with the tip of your sickle?

After some year

my father cut the same bamboo

and made a Tatno[1] out of it.

While standing holding the fodder for goats

the Tatno made up of bamboo

with my name etched on it, collapsed

as soon as this year’s monsoon was over.

My name was still there on the left out piece of bamboo

of which my mother built fire by putting it into Ageno[2].

My name also burnt away

together with that piece of bamboo,

and there ended the history of

my name you had carved on it.

I wished you to be one of the witnesses

of the time of ending of a history.

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[1] Tatno – bamboo made indigenous hay feeder for goats.

[2] Ageno- a fireplace

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Translated from Nepali by Suman Pokhrel

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Mukunda Prayas translated into English by Suman Pokhrel

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