Poems by Jayant Parmar

Translated from the Gujarati by Dr.G.K.Vankar

The stink of the hellpit

The stink of the hellpit
Dogs me
to my school
Below the sun umbrella
It would descend
Barefooted
In the hellpit. She would
Wet
The animal skin
In salt and water
And cleanse it with her dead feet
As a reward
She would bring
For me
A piece of meat.

Even today
When I shine my shoes
With cherry blossom
In its shining
I see my mother’s face.

The stink of hellpit
Dogs me
to my office.
(From Shabdasrushi Dalit Literature special number)


The portrait

I can clearly count his ribs.
Sweeping the streets
His spine has worn out.
His dreams have been buried in the waste paper heap.
He remained all his life half naked
In fact he was intentionally kept so,
And yet no one called him half naked man.
So many holes of atrocities
On his shirt of life
While alive, how many deaths he met with,
If I begin to count
How many births I need to take?
Till the day
He has been kicked,
Tolerated tyranny
Silently.

But today from his sweat
I smell
Dynamite!

(From the anthology Dundubhi)

The Poet
Jayant Parmar

Jayant Parmar, born in 1954, works in a Bank in Ahmedabad. A bilingual poet, he writes in Gujarati and Urdu. He is a painter too.

He has published Aur, a collection of Urdu poems (1999). Another collection of Urdu poems, Pencil Aur Doosri Nazmein, is his forthcoming book.
He is recipient of Gujarat Urdu Sahitya Akademi Award, 2001, and Kumar Pashi Award, 2001, Bhasha Bharti Samman 2007 and Sahitya Akademi Award 2009.
His address: 12, Shantiniketan Society, Radha Swami Road, Ranip, Ahmedabad 382480. Tel: 079-27524234 (Res.), 079-27522781 (Office).