The following poems have been translated and transcreated from the eminent poet, Mohan Rana’s poems, “Cheenti” (“Ant”) and “Teesra Yuddha” (“The Third War”).

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Ant

I don’t know—
No, I don’t know, what it is that you want to know!
This has been my shield
my only alibi
whenever fired with questions branded as Truth

And still, you kept firing—
resolutely skeptical of what was true
For it was an alien
in your ghettoes

And I
carried falsehoods weighing multiples of myself
from here to there
mistaking them for truths

The departing sun left molten
golden stripes on the veins of leaves
The branches absorbed them
back in the earth through their roots
And I stocked a few in my eyelashes—
fearing bad weather
while stitching up a crack

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The Third War

A voice wafted from the corner of the shop—
“Take it, it’s free!”

In the shadows of books
like an unperturbed afternoon shade
he quietly measured me up

“If you want it, take it,” he repeated
watching me flip through
an inventory of books on wars

So many books on the Second World War—
legends, memoirs, histories, and snapshots—
even ammunitions marked for children
have metamorphosed into art
when washed as black-and-white photographs

So many metaphors
all about a war that has passed

If it were to happen again
would as much be printed yet again?

“Probably not,” he laughed
at my question, as a parchment ominously rustled

Reconnaissances are already underway…

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About Mohan Rana

Mohan Rana, the eminent Indian poet of Hindi, was born in Delhi, and lives in Bath, in Britain. His most recent collection of poetry is Ekant Mein Roshandaan (Skylight in Solitude). He has published ten poetry collections and several of his poems have been commissioned for translation by the Arts Council England, among others. His writings have also been translated into several European languages.