O MY VILLAGE! WHY YOU TRANSFORMED INTO CITY? : MY ENGLISH TRANSVERSION OF NEPALI POEM BY BIIRBHADRA KARKIDHOLI

 O MY VILLAGE! WHY YOU TRANSFORMED INTO CITY?

A well-wisher told me wretchedly 

A kindred, shedding tears, narrated me

About earthquake in my village

Narratives about thunder-storms

About drought conditions 

Flood and landscaping

About extinction of 

Temples, wells and springs

After so many years, today

I have visited my village

My village has transformed into city

Villagers have turned into city-dwellers

I had come to view village

I had come to offer my humble regards to

Entity of my village.

I intended to bow in front of peaks here

I had planned to purify myself 

By bathing in spring of pilgrim

But, my village has turned into city

Ascent on which we used to climb

For going to school

Road has been built there

* Chilouna tree

That was worshipped every Sunday

Since time of our ancestors

Has been ruthlessly uprooted by buldozer

Resting places where we used to relax

While returning from school

Have been converted to butcher-houses

Many elders/matured / wise persons

Have become butchers

My village is now totally different from

What it was before my departure

Where are thatched huts

Cowsheds/ divided fields

Huge mansions have been erected 

On that land 

Noble-hearted people used to dwell there

Oh! How different has become my village

Roads have been constructed on fragmented villages

Hard working hands that used to till land

Are busy these days in breaking stones

And spreading coal tar 

Faces turning ugly with coal-tar

Gathering in any home in evening

What they might be thinking, viewing their village

How much pain might be experienced

By heart suffering from smoke of coal-tar

My village has transformed into city

Streets have been built

Whose are these/ who have let them loose

These dogs, who bark at strangers

This village has turned deadly now

Where is the lantern/ earthen lamps

Who never left us in lurch

Can we trust this electricity!

Can we rely on these roads!!

I had come to village to till fields

I intended to meet all friends

I wished to ask from senior -elders

About policies/rules

And culture

Intended to offer flowers to Goddess and Gods

Halting for a while in * choupati

Will offer * mala-bindi to

All woman folk, young and old

As a token of remembrance

Will visit friends in their thatched huts

Will play flute in divided fields and cowsheds

Will play *maadal and dance to its tune

I had all these only in my mind

Will stay for some days more in village 

And attend thread-ceremony

Will enjoy meals in community

Entranced by music of *noumati -baje

I will dance a lot twisting my waist

Will carry bundles of * puvaal for some days/ will plough

Will meet ploughmen, women sowing rice

Those all who , with tearful eyes had 

Prohibited me for not moving to city

Told me not to settle in foreign land

Hugging me tightly

They had cried bitterly

At the moment of my departure

I will see them again and embrace them

I returned after so many years

Holding these thoughts in my mind

I had come to see that image of my village

Because, wherever we settle down

Wherever we dwell

Our heart lingers in village

A village is a village

But my village has turned into city

Villagers have turned into city-dwellers

I pity you, my village! Why you became city?

O, my village! Why you turned into a city?

* Chilouna tree : a tree in Nepal used for construction and medicine

*Choupati : rural gathering place

* mala -bindi: garland

* puwal * dried yellowish stalks from crops

* maadaal *  Nepalese folk musical instrument, hand drum

 *noumati -baje: Nepalese musical instruments