Poetry at Sangam

Poetry at Sangam showcases poetry in English and translations as well as essays on poetics and news of new releases.

AT THE DINING TABLE by Nilim Kumar

(Translated from the Assamese by Nabina Das.)

We hadn’t placed a chair at the dining table for my mother.

We were all sitting around the table eating dinner.

She had come right then. On meeting her eyes

I coughed. I choked at the throat. My mother’s eyes

welled up with tears. I didn’t get up to go close

to my mother. I couldn’t carry on eating.

My family became concerned about me.

My mother didn’t recognize her own daughter-in-law

and granddaughters. My mother came after 17 years.

She was all of 27 years, just as before.

I was already older than my mother. My mother’s

eyes had welled up seeing me all grown up.

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