Guna’s poem explores the complex bond between a self-sacrificing mother and her child. highlighting themes of duty, sacrifice, and the weight of love, exclusively for Different Truths.

Sitting hunched at the hearth
of useful knowledge
she toasted her ashen eyes
through the gaps of her fingers
and very often said,
You are one of my unique achievements,
of my,
for ten months and ten days
By birth, you’ve got a beautiful earth,
besides the vast sky
So, you must be generous like the sun,
and tolerant, like the earth.

At my birth, I cried,
Maybe I got the pain from my mother.
Since then, I have had tears in my eyes.
in happiness and sorrow of people
One can’t help crying,
whose only companion at birth was tears.

That honeyed word ‘Maa’,
was my first honeyed word.
Since then I’ve blurted out ‘Maa’,
Unawares,
whenever I sit down or stand up 
 
My birth is my mother’s sacrifice.
I must be made for sacrifice,
I can’t be an ingrate.

My happiness lies in my mother’s happiness.
My sorrow lies in my mother’s sorrow,
Never can I be happy.
 
 
He is the lone custodian of happiness.
whose main assets are:
the sun and the earth.

(Original Assamese poem titled “Adipath”) 

                                                            Translated by Nirendra Nath Thakuria from Assamese

Picture design by Anumita Roy

Guna Moran

Guna Moran is a renowned Assamese poet and book reviewer, with over 300 published poems in international magazines and journals. He won the Creator of Justice Award 2020, and his work has been translated into several languages. Moran has published three poetry books and participated in poetry programs in the USA, Hong Kong, Bangladesh, Mumbai, and in Indian cities, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, West Bangla. He participated in the VI Open Eurasian Literary Festival ‘Lift’ (2022).

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