The last poem by Sushant Supriye to appear here was “Yesterday Night in my Dreams” (June 2016)
A fearful thought (Hindi title: Daraawani Baat)
Translated from Hindi
By Sushant Supriye
One day
I returned home
but it did not seem
like my house.
The house number was same
but the relatives living in it
seemed complete strangers.
The street was same
but there was a
haunting strangeness about it.
The neighbours were same
but their eyes
seemed so unrecognizable.
This was my own city
but it had a pungent smell
of alienness to it.
This was a fearful thought.
More fearful was the fact that
I called everyone
by their nicknames
but no one responded.
Very spooky.
wonderful and chilling description of the sudden disjunction of alienation—where nothing is familiar and the world wears a sinister mask–A frightening experience indeed!!
You’ve aptly described a dream many of us share.
“I called everyone
by their nicknames
but no one responded.”
speaks of a primal terror that is the stuff of nightmares.