from Magadh
selected by Stefan Tobler

The publisher Stefan Tobler writes: In Shrikant Verma’s masterpiece Magadh, first published in Hindi in 1984 and to be published in Rahul Soni’s English translation in the UK for the first time this October by And Other Stories, a chorus of narrators – commoners, statesmen, nameless wanderers – mull on the histories of ancient cities and kingdoms (including Magadh), their rise to splendour, their decline and eventual fall. Some critics sometimes view the book as one long poem, others as a collection of poems.


Magadh

Listen horseman, where’s Magadh?
I’ve come
from Magadh
I must go to
Magadh

Where
do I turn?
North or south,
east or west?

Here I see Magadh,
here it disappears –

just yesterday
I left Magadh
just yesterday
Magadh’s people

told me not to
leave Magadh
I gave my word –
I’d be back
before sunrise

But there is
...