We present this work in honor of Maha Shivrati.

 

Nights of jasmine & thunder,
torn petals
wind in the tangled kadamba trees.
Nothing has changed-
Spring has come again and we’ve simply grown older.

In the cane groves of the Narmada
he deflowered my
girlhood, long before we were
married.
And I grieve for those far-away nights
when we played at love
By the water.

Translation by Andrew Schelling