Gagan Gill

The Girl's Desire Moves Among Her Bangles
 
The girl's desire moves among her bangles
They should break first on his bed
Then on the threshold of his house.
 
But why on the threshold?
 
Because a woman sits grieving inside the girl
A woman who's a widow
No, not really one
But a woman who'll surely become
A widow.
 
The girl's fear throbs in her veins
And moves across her bangles
The girl's desire throbs in her bangles
And they throb with her sorrow.
 
Sorrow?
 
Where's this girl's man?
The man who's in her mourning veins
Who fills her bangles with desire?
 
Her man lies caught
In someone else's body
Someone else's dream, someone else's sorrow
Someone else's tears
Each one of his sorrows, dreams, tears
Lies beyond the girl's mourning grasp.
 
But the girl's still a girl
The same primitive innocence in her
Fills her with madness, a deathwish
For which she will always punish the man
In the days to come.
When she will smash her bangles
On the threshold of his house...

 
Translation from Hindi © Mrinal Pande and Arlene Zide

 

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