May We Celebrate Many Happy Returns of the Day

AFFECTION

Written in Oriya by Smt. Chandraprava Pattanayak
Translated into English by Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

I am not the young age that goes away not to return,
No Shephali flower am I to fall down when rises the Sun.

Not am I the gloom of the new-moon day
Storms come and storms go, love’s white bloom I stay.

In the realm of my mind along ecstasy of creation
I am the rhythm of creativity, the paradise of affection.

By setting new tunes to the flute of life,
By infusing abundance thereinto,
I will refurbish and keep alive
My world for all times to come in situ.

This is my rendition of Chandraprava’s MAMATA that I present as a token of my best wishes to her on the 45th anniversary of her happy marriage with my dearest friend Prasanta Patnaik. I have picked up this poem from SWARAMAYA, the compilation of her Oriya poems, brought out by Associated Media Foundation, Bhubaneswar, on 23 January 2010.

As I share this pleasure with you all, I would like to thank Chandraprava and Prasanta for the very fact that they have made their togetherness exemplary for our society. Both of them constitute a remarkable couple that devotes its might to the common cause of Orissa.

May we celebrate many happy returns of the day.