Highway by Malathi Maitri

Along the highways
of a refugee’s life
snapshots of childhood memories
hang:
hedges overspread with field bean
thick with honeybees,
a courtyard filled with goat droppings,
the shade of a portia-tree,
school children under a neem-tree,
a pond swarming with buffaloes
woods echoing with the koel’s song
the sea-shore where sea-birds call.

The highways carry us along
to yet other highways.

From: https://wordswithoutborders.org/read/article/2015-04/highway/

Date: 2011 (original in Tamil); 2015 (translation in English)

By: Malathi Maitri (1968- )

Translated by: Lakshmi Holmström (1935-2016)