Quietly in the wood,
It grows among the weeds;
An uncommon blossom, u tiew dohmaw,
A thing of lofty thoughts.
Quietly by shadowy streams,
To be fragrance when faded,
The joy-giving fern
Remains green for twelve moons.
Tell me twilight, beloved of the gods,
And you the motley clouds;
Tell me where is that star
That first speckles the sky.
Quietly he lives, quietly he dies,
Amidst the wilderness;
Quietly in the grave let him rest,
Beneath the green, green grass.
~ The Green Grass by U Soso Tham, Khasi poet and literary icon.
Known as the “Bard of Meghalaya” for defining modern Khasi literature.
U tiew dohmaw: a wild flower, symbol of great wisdom.
Namaste Friends,
This is the last chapter of the Meghalaya series, though I have a few more pieces burning at the back of my mind. This essay series took super long to finish and I did not, intentionally, wanted to hurry through all the lived reality of our Khasi kin. It was a massive responsibility to take up a project of narrating stories as old as time, like …
