HINDI
Even without saying my tongue knows
the scars on its back from the assaults
now long forgotten, that many of its verbs still can't sleep
and its adjectives often hurt at night.
A language isn't a state,
let a language be a language only,
Arabic, Turkish, Bangla, Telugu,
even the sound of a swaying leaf.
I speak a little bit of everything
when I speak Hindi.
हिन्दी
बिना कहे भी जानती है मेरी जिह्वा
कि उसकी पीठ पर भूली हुई चोटों के
कितने निशान हैं
कि आती नहीं नींद उसकी कई क्रियाओं को
रात-रात भर
दुखते हैं अक्सर कई विशेषण।
कि राज नहीं-भाषा
भाषा-भाषा सिर्फ भाषा रहने दो मेरी भाषा को
अरबी-तुर्की बांग्ला तेलुगू
यहां तक कि एक पत्ती के हिलने की आवाज भी
मैं सब बोलता हूं जरा-जरा
जब बोलता हूं हिन्दी.
HOME AND COUNTRY
Hindi is my country
Bhojpuri is my home
…. I love both of them
but look at my difficulty,
I have been looking for
both of them
at both places
for the past sixty years.
देश और घर
हिंदी मेरा देश है
भोजपुरी मेरा घर
….मैं दोनों को प्यार करता हूं
और देखिए न मेरी मुश्किल
पिछले साठ बरसों से
दोनों को दोनों में
खोज रहा हूं।
Poems from "Srishti Par Pahra" (Defending the Universe) by Kedarnath Singh has been translated from the original Hindi into English by Kalpna Singh-Chitnis.
केदारनाथ सिंह - Kedarnath Singh was a Hindi poet, critic, and essayist. He received India’s highest literary honor, the Jananpith Award, and the Sahitya Academy Award. His anthologies include Srishti Par Pahra, Abhi Bilkul Abhi, Zameen Pak Rahi Hai, Yahan se Dekho, Akaal Mein Saaras, Baagh,Tolstoy aur Cycle and Matdaan Kendra Pe Jhapki.
कल्पना सिंह - Kalpna Singh-Chitnis is an Indian American poet, writer, and editor-in-Chief of Life and Legends and Hindi Literature Today. Her full-length poetry collection Bare Soul was awarded the 2017 Naji Naaman Literary Prize for Creativity. She has also authored three poetry collections in Hindi - "तफ़्तीश जारी है," "निशांत" and "चाँद का पैवंद." She won the prestigious "Bihar Rajbhasha Award" (1986-87) given by the government of Bihar, India, for her first poetry collection "Chand Ka Paivand" (Patch of Moon), and the title of 'Bihar Shri' (Jewel of Bihar) in 1988. In 2014, she was nominated for "Honor of Yeast Litteraire" by Levure litteraire magazine in Paris, France and received the "Rajiv Gandhi Global Excellence Award" in New Delhi for her contributions to literature and cinema. Kalpna's literary work has been widely published and translated into many languages. A former lecturer of Political Science, she studied "Buddhism Through Its Scripture" at HarvardX (Harvard University). She also holds a degree in Film Directing from NYFA and works as an independent filmmaker in Hollywood. Website – www.kalpnasinghchitnis.com