12. Empty Space BY AMRITA PRITAM TRANSLATED FROM THE PUNJABI BY D.H. TRACY & MOHAN TRACY Read the translator’s notes There were two kingdoms only: the first of them threw out both him and me. The second we abandoned. Under a bare sky I for a long time soaked in the rain of my body, he for a long time rotted in the rain of his. Then like a poison he drank the fondness of the years. He held my hand with a trembling hand. “Come, let’s have a roof over our heads awhile. Look, further on ahead, there between truth and falsehood, a little empty space.”

    Empty Space


    BY AMRITA PRITAM

    TRANSLATED FROM THE PUNJABI BY D.H. TRACY & MOHAN TRACY

    Read the translator’s notes

    There were two kingdoms only:
    the first of them threw out both him and me.
    The second we abandoned.

    Under a bare sky
    I for a long time soaked in the rain of my body,
    he for a long time rotted in the rain of his.

    Then like a poison he drank the fondness of the years.
    He held my hand with a trembling hand.
    “Come, let’s have a roof over our heads awhile.
    Look, further on ahead, there
    between truth and falsehood, a little empty space.”

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    gas dinosaur (U.S.)

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