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  • It’s a Mineral, the Mind
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It’s a Mineral, the Mind

Mohan Koirãlã

Velvet the Himalayan poinsettia in bloom,
silver the scabbard of thrusting power,
the mind is a clear scent,
the pen is a new ridge of hills.

I am a tree with countless boughs,
a flower which hides a thousand petals,
a juniper, a pointed branch of the scented fig,
its rough, misshapen fruit.

In my belief I am Nepali,
my faith the highest Himalaya,
my favourite season is the one
when leather jackets are donned,
my clothes are only freedom.

The Himalayan lights my touching place,
equality spread on the ground where I stand.


Mohan Koirãlã

from Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia and Beyond, edited by Tina Chang, Nathalie Handal and Ravi Shankar (London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2008)

Translated from the Nepali by Michael James Hutt

Reproduced by kind permission of the translator.

Tags:

clothes freedom identity metaphor mountains nature Nepal whimsy wildflowers

About this poem

This poem, representing Nepal, is part of The Written World – our collaboration with BBC radio to broadcast a poem from every single nation competing in London 2012.

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Mohan Koirãlã

Mohran Koirala was born 1926 in Kathmandu. His early poems were written against the ruling Rana oligarchy. He was nominated to the Royal Nepal Academy for the first time in 1974 as a member, followed by another term in 1990....
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