Haldhar Nag

“The money I earn now by selling my body, I shall spendTo buy heaps of dowry, when I go as a bride newlywed.”

“On everyone’s lips there was this talk.Triumph is never for the poor folk;Water always downward flows,Fault to the deprived always goes.”

“Like in an heirless clan,The lamp is lit by the newborn;Let the wick burn and spread,The language of Odisha-Western.”

“For my hunger in my belly I beg,But selfish I am notSelf-centered you are, better start begging,Like me from house to hut.”

“Unheralded unsung she is,In all seven books of RamayanaFor the poet in me, Sati she is,Even greater than Sita in purity.”

“Let the nectar always flowFrom the seven seasFrom the moon in the skiesFrom mother's breastFrom noble principlesAnd from the poet's scribbles”

“It sees, it knows, it hears, it findsBut it speaks not a wordIt stands like a mute witnessWith its strong arms spread outward”

“The hemant (dewy season) hosts almost all the plants and species on the earth. 560 million species from ant to elephant take shelter during Hemant. The small millets, the Sunflower and what not, all bloom during the hemant. Out of six seasons we now only have three. In Orissa we had Grishma (summer) Barsha (Rainy), Sarata (Autumn), and Basanta (spring). Now we are only left with summer winter and rainy.”

“I cannot read, write or understand English so cannot compare the original and translated work.”

“Poetry must have real-life connection and a message for the people.”

“Everyone is a poet, but only a few have the art of giving them shape.”