Amitabh Vikram Dwivedi is assistant professor of linguistics at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, India. His research interests include language documentation, writing descriptive grammars, and the preservation of rare and endangered languages in South Asia. His most recent books are A Grammar of Hadoti (Lincom: Munich, 2012), A Grammar of Bhadarwahi (Lincom: Munich, 2013), and a poetry collection titled Chinaar kaa Sukhaa Pattaa (2015) in Hindi. As a poet, he has published more than 100 poems in different anthologies, journals and magazines worldwide.

Below is 1 of 6 in a series of monthly installments of Poetry in Translation from lesser known Indo-Aryan languages—namely, Hadoti, Bhadarwahi, and Dogri for Visitant.

Source language: Hadoti[1] (Indigenous language spoken in the State of Rajasthan in the Republic of India)
Target language: English
Genre: Folksong
Script: For SL (Devanagari) and for TL (English)

Bedbugs

Bedbugs, native of Kota-Bundi[2]
Go somewhere else, let me sleep.
You go to Sohan Lal[3] ji[4]’s bed, let his wife get rashes.
O servant of the King! Let me sleep.
O insect! Let me sleep.
This time let me bring you cap-pullovers from my mother’s home.
You go to my husband’s bed, let him get big rashes.
O servant of the King! Let me sleep.
O insect! Let me sleep.

[1] For more information:  A Grammar of Hadoti

[2] Two popular places in Rajasthan.

[3] A common Rajasthani name

[4] Honorific marker