Untitled - Azam Abidov - poet and translator

PRAYAG SAIKIA
Poet Prayag Saikia has, till date, six collections of poetry,
a novel, a short-story collection and a novelette in verse to his
credit. His poems have also been published in Indian Literature,
Chandrabhaga, Poet International, The Statesman’s festival issue,
Chicago Poetry online anthology, Gulistan (literary journal of
Uzbekistan).
Wings on the arms
In these very woods he had
Embraced obscurity;
He’d come fleeing from a faith,
That seized from one’s view
The telescope
And ended horizon at the naked eye’s range.
This man had in these very woods,
Like a bird soaring over the world,
Put on two wings on his arms,
He belonged not to those days,
He was today’s.
If you too yearn to turn your back
Against the many rigid faiths,
Come to these woods.
These woods exist not in the present
But in the distant years after.
(Translated from original Assamese by Krisna Dulal Barua)
212