Guna Moran - GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY

Guna Moran - GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY

 

Guna Moran is an Assamese poet and critic. His poems are being published in various international magazines, journals, webzines and anthologies. He lives in Assam, India.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY

                         Original : Assamese: Guna Moran

Translation :: Bibekananda Choudhury

 

Birds learnt to fly

After reading geography

 

I learnt to fight

After reading history

 

The avian has a limitless circumference of excursion

Can move to various places at ones’ will

 

History is embedded in geography

So the birds

Chose geography to history

And

Rather than nestling permanently at one place

Learnt to make the entire world its abode

 

There is no better travel than flying

There is no better knowledge than travel

Hence the birds are wise and non-violent

 

But the scope of my movement

Is quite narrow and fixed

Even if I wish

I cannot go elsewhere

Like the birds

If I apply force to break the limit

Blood would flow because of border crossing.

 

I made an aircraft

After the birds flying in the sky

And converted the sky into an battlefield

 

Now the game of war

Being played in two battlefields

The count of history in terms of win and loss

Has increased in the valley of death

 

The new fighters too

Followed the path of yesteryears

Reading history books.

Thereafter too did not understand the value of geography

Of course

It is not an easy task

To learn about geography

Hence history got detached from other’s bosom

And turned into an individual subject

And the preamble of battle practice

Came along by birth.