My Own Words
by Mohan Rana
They said, don't go to the end of the world
You'll get scared when you see your long shadow
On that side it's the world of winged pythons
The earth is radiant with the fire they spit out
If you arrive where there is neither day nor night you
Will turn into a stone*, waiting
As if I had heard my own words
From someone else
Had it been possible to rehearse in life
Some changes would have been written into the screen play,
My own words cannot be evaded
Returning
Going away
Loving you
I couldn't write for several days
But I was not good
Living through bad times I kept on getting bad
I became imperceptible like time
Constantly spinning in the clock
Frenzied by some words of mine
The literal translation of this poem was made by Lucy Rosenstein
The final translated version of the poem is by Bernard O'Donoghue
Notes
* The mention of the stone alludes to the story of Ahalya - the wife of Gautama Maharishi - mentioned in the Hindu epic Ramayana. After she is seduced by god Indra through trickery (by appearing in the form of her husband), Gautama cursed her to suffer tapas (austere penance); some versions of the story (notably the famous Ram-carit manas by Tulsidas) say she was turned to stone. She was liberated by Rama.
© Poetry Translation Centre 2004-2012
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