Sleeping Porter (Nidrit Bhariya) - Laxmi Prasad Devkota

On his back a fifty-pound load,

his spine bent double,

six miles sheer in the winter snows;

naked bones;

with two rupees of life in his body

to challenge the mountain.

He wears a cloth cap, black and sweaty,

a ragged garment;

lousy, flea-ridden clothes are on his body,

his mind is dulled.

It's like sulphur, but how great

this human frame!

The bird of his heart twitters and pants;

sweat and breath;

in his hut on the cliffside, children shiver:

hungry woes.

His wife like a flower

searches the forest for nettles and vines.

Beneath this great hero's snow peak,

the conqueror of Nature is wealthy

with pearls of sweat on his brow.

Above, there is only the lid of night,

studded with stars,

and in this night he is rich with sleep.

---

Laxmi Prasad Devkota (1909 - 1959) Nepal

Translated by Michael James Hurt

Source: Himalayan Voices An Introduction to Modern Nepali Literature, Translated and Edited by Michael James Hurt University of California Press, 1991