IMAGES OF THE RI KHASI
                  POETRY 4.

 
 
 
 
Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih  
Born in Sohra in 1964, he has published five collections of poetry, two in English, three in Khasi. They include Moments, The Sieve,  Kan Samoi jong ka Lyer, Ki Mawsiang ka Sobra, and Ki Jing kyn maw. He is at present, Deputy Director, in-charge of Publications Cell, North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong. His latest work is titled Khasi Legends Around the Hearth.
 

 
 
REN 

Faraway 
from the year dot 
Ren, the Nongjri fisherman 
Ren, the beloved of a river nymph 
Ren, who loved so madly 
         who left his mother and his home 
         to live in the magic depths 
also left a message: 
           "Mother" he had said, 
           "listen to the river. 
           as long as it roars 
           you will know that I live." 
It was too faraway 
from the year dot 
what he had said. 
           Times have changed 
            the sound of our lives 
            dwindles into different tongues 
            and every day, tongues 
            lap up our sound. 
Still it was too far away 
from the year dot 
what he had said. 
           Times have changed 
            few care to listen 
            many only wish to be left 
            to their separate dreams. 
And mine always end 
with alien policemen 
their eyes longing 
to eat us up. 
             Or if they don't 
             Those they protect will: 
              an insidious infection 
              someday.... 
 

(Translated from the Khasi by the poet) 
The poem is based on a Khasi folk story about Ren, a fisherman from the village Nongjri in the East Khasi Hills. Ren is said to have fallen in love with a river nymph, and eventually to have followed her into the river, leaving the symbolic message mentioned in the poem. 

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