Vermilion Eating Fish Poem by Pradip Saikia

A hanging bridge
Disappearing
As one steps on it

A window extending its hand towards the Sun
With an orange

Three entwined fires
Under the same Japi

Three whistling women
Lying on the same bed of hay

Three rag dolls
Their faces tied up
Pointed by the eyes

Three hearths where mustard seeds pops
At the neigh of time-horse

In the light of earth of illusion
Kept alive in the aquarium
Three fishes living on vermilion

# Translated from Assamese to English by: Bibekananda Chowdhury