Guna’s poem explores the complexities of affection, highlighting its silence and unresponsiveness until separation, exclusively for Different Truths.
It was gleaming with the gaze Affection is dumb, Affection is deaf, Like a speaker, it did not speak about the matter like a listener, it did not listen to Till the moment of parting it kept waiting in the eyes In the thick green of the desolate woods A tune is ringing faintly Gazing at the eyes I want to see Is it still alive? Oh dear! No way, no way Cleaving the heart comes out a curious sigh In the teary gaze is it still alive?
Original poem titled “Anurag tomar babe”
Translated from Assamese by Nirendra Nath Thakuria
Picture design by Anumita Roy