Tag: khasiwritersinenglish

  • “Ki kti wad jingsyaid…” da Daiarisa Rumnong (Haiku)

    Ki kti wad jingsyaid

    ïa ding saw kyrkhu arti,

    sla kyrthop ki hap.

    – Daiarisa

    Hands searching for warmth,

    bless a fire with joined hands,

    a ragged leaf falls.

    – Daiarisa

    Ka haiku ka dei ka rukom thoh poitri kaba na ka ri Japan. Katba ngi wad jingsyaid ha kane ka tlang, ngin pyni ïa ka jingieit jong ngi ïa ka mariang bad ka meiramew, katba ka dang khih dang syar ban thaw thymmai ïalade 🌄🏞️🍃🌨️

    A haiku is a Japanese verse form of three unrhymed lines, of five, seven and five syllables. A haiku often features an image, or a pair of images, meant to depict the essence of a specific moment in time.

    Haiku poems are primarily used to express feelings about Nature. Traditional poems dealt with themes like time, nature, emotions and so on. They are meant as words of enlightenment for the readers.

    Despite its many adaptions into multiple languages and styles, the haiku remains a powerful form due to its economic use of language to evoke a specific mood or instance. Most often occurring in the present tense, a haiku frequently depicts a moment by using pair of distinct images working in tandem.

    Haikus written by @daia.risa

  • “Mylliem” by Esther Syiem

    Village of my ancestors

    secure in your remoteness

    where your men stoke their forges

    under makeshift shelters;

    shacks of molten fire that

    spark with the energy of limbs that

    strike…hit…strike..

    in an echoing canvas of sound and silence

    that will always lead me back to my distant beginnings.

    Mylliem of my ancestors

    your smithies have endured

    the treacheries of wind and rain

    your flames lick

    the shimmering cold, as they

    condense in vapours of liquid heat.

    You are the mirage,

    locked in metal.

    Must I turn to you again?

    as in your men and in your women

    I find an answering call

    in the aroma of smoked earth in them

    and in the unbeaten slant of a life

    that writes itself back into my present.

    -Esther Syiem

    Mylliem is a hamlet in East Khasi Hills, famous for its iron smelting works.

    "Mylliem" is an original Khasi poem by Dr. Esther Syiem @meiithei which appears in the collection entitled Oral Scriptings (Writers Workshop, Kolkata, 2005).

    If you are from Mylliem or have lived there, you will find that the poem is an evocative mix of the sounds and images from the village of Mylliem which we now don't hear anymore. Gone are the days when the strikes of the blacksmiths were a reassuring pace of the passing of life. But we are never rid of our memories. These sounds and images return to fill our dreams and our stories. ✍️✍️🗣️🗣️

    Dr. Esther Syiem is a professor in the Department of English, North-Eastern Hill University.