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The Memory of Now QUOTES

The Memory of Now QUOTES

1 " From my body, take earth and sprinkle on barren lands
From my body, take water and bestrew the desert with streams
From my body, take the sky and build roofs for the homeless
From my body, take air and purify the breath of factories
From my body, take fire, your heart is frightfully cold

- Geet Chaturvedi
Translated by Anita Gopalan "

― Geet Chaturvedi , The Memory of Now

2 " Downstairs I left a candle burning
In its light I'll read a few lines when I return

By the time I returned the candle had burned out
Those few lines had faded like innocence

You walk with me
The way moon walks along with a child sitting in a train window

I stood in the balcony one day
Waved a handkerchief toward the sky

Those who have gone without saying their goodbyes
Will recognize it even from far

In my handkerchief they have left behind their tears
The way early humans left behind their etchings on cave walls
Lyotard said, every sentence is a now
No. Actually it's a memory of now

Every memory is a poem
In our books, the count of the unwritten poems is so much more

- Geet Chaturvedi
Translated by Anita Gopalan "

― Geet Chaturvedi , The Memory of Now

3 " I threw my poems
in the ocean
the paper rotted
but poems swim
along with little fishes on the ocean floor.

- Geet Chaturvedi,
Translated by Anita Gopalan "

― Geet Chaturvedi , The Memory of Now

4 " What I write
is water dripping from a child’s cupped hands.

- Geet Chaturvedi
Translated by Anita Gopalan "

― Geet Chaturvedi , The Memory of Now

5 " The world is rapt by the sound of harsh music
and you a soft silence woven in my touch.

- Geet Chaturvedi
Translated by Anita Gopalan "

― Geet Chaturvedi , The Memory of Now

6 " The sea is a lover, most forgiving. Every moment he forgives the waves receding from him and includes them again into him. Love is to let go. Love is also to accept the ones who have returned.

Geet Chaturvedi
Translated by Anita Gopalan "

― Geet Chaturvedi , The Memory of Now

7 " You are in love with green,
You translate every scene into green

I am in love with you,
I translate every scene into you

Your blindness is the colour green,
My blindness is coloured you.

- Geet Chaturvedi,
Translated by Anita Gopalan "

― Geet Chaturvedi , The Memory of Now

8 " The world was two, like your breasts
The world was also three, like your eyes
The world was countless, like your thoughts

I was alone, like the tang of your tear
I was alone, like the lone mole on your forehead
I remained alone
Despite living in a world that was countless.

- Geet Chaturvedi,
Translated by Anita Gopalan "

― Geet Chaturvedi , The Memory of Now