| Amrikan Bihe, Nepali Kabita
An American wedding in Washington DC recites Bairagi Kaila.
Bairagi Kaila’s poem, “My Love’s New Edition”, was read out at the wedding ceremony of Jack Daggitt and Caroline McMeekin at a church, recently, inWashington DC. About two hundred people attended the ceremony.
The poem, adapted into the English language by Pallav Ranjan, was read out on the occasion by Cindy Simons Bennett, President of Child of My Dreams, an organization that provides services for adoption and infertility treatment.
“When I read the poem by Bairagi Kaila, I knew I had found the right words to express what love is, and the expectations of marriage. It was the perfect way to express my love for them [the couple] and their love for eachother. The realities of what love has to offer, simply... only ourselves. Icry every time I read it, ” she said.
She went to the Spiny Babbler Museum of Literature and Arts at www.spinybabbler.org and read most of the poems there and selected Bairagi Kaila’s “My Love’s New Edition” for the wedding ceremony. She, the couple, and their friends have been passing the webaddress around and everyone is enjoying Nepalese literature and art on thesite, she added.
Those visiting the Spiny Babbler Museum of Literature and Art can access ten years of work Spiny Babbler has put into Nepalese literature and arts. The museum that focuses entirely on the English language contains 21 literary journals, five art galleries, life stories, artwork, and poems of manycreators, three exhibitions, a news section, a newsletter, and many other features.
Also featured are a user’s forum, short profiles of Nepalese artgalleries, and the listing of the finest Nepalese creators. Kailas poem follows:
My Love’s New Edition
Long time ago, my love, I promised
I would take you dancing by starlight,
take you to a dream-like paradise,
feed you the drink of immortality,
make us unforgettable history.
All of this was mistake, perhaps.
I even promised eternal youth. Menaka-like.
I can now tell you
I come from the soil.
I come from a flower.
I can buy you a sari,
feed you in restaurants,
and walk to the crossings with you.
I can be true to you,
I can be loyal to you,
my love, I can love you while I live.
You see,
flying towards Heaven,
I had forgotten to climb the stairs to my house.
Dreaming of immortality
I had nearly forgotten to live.
I made the earth cry,
insulted human heart.
But now I can say confidently,
I come from the soil.
I come from a flower.
My love, I can make you the woman of the poet's pen
I can make you the mother of a king like son,
I can accept defeat, I can love,
I am human, I can be human - for you.
I can love you, protect you as long as I live.
Look in my eyes, I bring to you my love's new edition.
I emerge from the ashes
of my past and here, in my eyes,
sparkling like my new poetry collection,
like the fresh flowers you have on the table this morning,
And it is here, in these eyes, that you find me and I find you every time
- Adaptation by Pallav Ranjan