Bodhisattva

Bodhisattva

written by: Devesh Path Sariya

That afternoon, in Taipei
I recalled the Stoopas of Ladakh
when I saw you singing on the stage
wearing that white dress

Of all the hands
that I’ve ever got to hold
yours was the softest
If our poet* had held that hand
It would be ‘soft’ instead of ‘warm’
in the poem

Why would anybody
let that hand slip off?

Your visa could not be extended
You are going back home
To the country, they call the most powerful
But your heart is stuck
On this small island

Attachment is a human weakness
Doesn’t suit the powerful
The poet in you overpowers your wisdom

Go!
No color would be extinct in my world
White, however, would become dull.

We both
won’t be able to become
the Bodhisattvas.

*  References to the poems by renowned Hindi poet Kedarnath Singh. There’s a famous poem by the renowned Hindi poet Kedarnath Singh where he says that the world should be beautiful and warm like the hand.

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Devesh Path Sariya

Devesh Path Sariya is a Hindi poet, non-fiction prose writer and a translator of poetry. His poems regularly feature in leading Hindi journals. He is 35 and works in Taiwan as a post-doctoral researcher in astronomy. Devesh’s first poetry collection ‘Nooh Ki Nav’ (2021) got published from the prestigious Sahitya Akademi, Delhi. He has translated a collection of poems by the senior Taiwanese poet Lee Min-Yung to Hindi. The collection was published with the name ‘Haqeeqat ke beech daraar’ (2021). He has submitted the manuscript of a prose book about his experiences of living in Taiwan to a Delhi-based publisher.

Latest posts by Devesh Path Sariya (see all)

• Bodhisattva - May 27, 2022