In Memory of Kailashpati Nishad

Wind by Ryky

even a rag can be
a man’s best friend
even a bicycle can love
with fidelity and passion
for many, many years
even silence can be
the loudest voice in a crowd
even a pair of slippers
can be enough to measure the world
even a hermit, a shaman, a mendicant
can provide company
for the long, sad journey of life
even a jhanj, a majira, an old dholak
can transport one
to great heights of feeling
even a trail, the step on a bus, a footpath
can be enough to keep moving for a lifetime
and to destroy
the illusion of arrival

who could have thought
that death would come like this –
like a bird

~ Kedarnath Singh, trans. Rahul Soni

Kedarnath Singh (born 1934) is one of the most prominent modern poets writing Hindi. He is also an eminent critic and essayist. Among his collections of poems are ‘Abhi Bilkul Abhi’ (1960); ‘Jamin Pak Rahi Hai’ (1980); ‘Akal Mein Saras’ (1989), which won the Sahitya Akademi poetry prize for that year; ‘Uttar Kabir Aur Anya Kavitaen’ (1995); and ‘Tolstoy Aur Cycle’ (2004).

Rahul Soni is a writer, editor and translator. He has edited ‘Home from a Distance’ (Pratilipi Books, 2011), an anthology of Hindi Poetry in English translation, and translated ‘Magadh’ (Almost Island Books, 2013), a collection of poems by Shrikant Verma, and ‘The Roof beneath Their Feet’ (HarperCollins, 2013), a novel by Geetanjali Shree.