Your smile
Like a curtain rippling at the door
your smile
I step forward—
And your smile spreads
Like fresh pressed oil on water
In the morning
when no shadows form on the floor
it alights like sunshine in an egg
Springs back like an unlatched window
And like a small road, it falls in step
accompanying me for a long while
Your smile
falls like seeds into the soil
Jamun like eyes well up with relish
And look, colour blue—
my teeth.
तुम्हारी हँसी
दरवाज़े पर लहराते पर्दे जैसी
तुम्हारी हँसी
मैं बढ़ता क़दम—
और फैल जाती तुम्हारी हँसी
पानी पर कच्चे तेल की तरह
सुबह के समय
जब ज़मीन पर नहीं बनतीं परछाइयाँ
अण्डे में धूप—सी उतर आती
खिड़की के खुलने सी लपकती वापिस
और पगडण्डी—सी चलती
देर तक साथ
तुम्हारी हँसी
पृथ्वी पर बीज—सी झरती
जामुन जैसी आँखों में भर आता स्वाद
और नीले पड़ जाते देखो—
मेरे दाँत।
Translation from the Hindi to the English by Carol D’Souza
The Hindi poem by Sourav Roy
The poem is selected from Roy’s latest collection Kaal Baisakhi, Vani Prakashan, 2022, page 25.
Carol D’Souza lives in Chennai. A collation of her work can be found at
linktr.ee/cblaizd. Her poetry in English has previously appeared in
ASAP|art, The Sunflower Collective, Almost Island, EKL Review, Hakara, Indian Cultural Forum, voice & verse, the Economic and Political Weekly, and elsewhere. It is forthcoming in
Qurbatein. Her translation of Uday Prakash and Amrita Pritam’s poetry from Hindi to English is forthcoming in the
Red River Anthology of Twenty First Century Hindi Poets and
Usawa Literary Review respectively.
Sourav Roy is a bilingual writer, poet, journalist, and translator. He currently works as a teacher, and has been a visiting faculty at Azim Premji University and NIFT Bengaluru in the past. He is also a core member of
Anjuman, a literary club that promotes Hindi-Urdu literature in Bengaluru. A
blogger since 2010, Sourav has worked as an Editor at YourStory Media in the past, where he
wrote about India’s social sector. He continues to write regularly for Bengaluru Review and
Deccan Herald newspaper. His published work includes
Kaal Baisakhi, Yayavar (Collections of poems)
Karnakavita (Editor: Anthology of Hindi-Urdu poetry from Bengaluru),
Teen Natak by Abhishek Majumdar (Editor),
Soho Mein Marx (Translator: 3 Plays by Howard Zinn), and
Os Ki Prithvi (Translation of Japanese Haiku).
