Song of Kameng

Song of Kameng

                                          --Dahey Sangno

Thick, low and cold mists shroud her narrow vale;

This moment- breezeless, leaves motionless on her dale.

Behold as she surges, from glaciers to plains,

 Praise her foaming ebbs, deep gorges and sharp bents.

In summer, inflated by rains, she’s flooded to her brim,

And her flow- grandiosely fast, roaring and grim.

As if she’s at war with her own shores,

With every dash of her riled wave come roars.

Her mid-current’s high, relentless and brute

And smell’s pungent with soils, shrubs and roots.

The rumbles of rolling and wearing stones on her bed

Grow louder by the night as all have gone quiet.

Logs and figs along her course, she carries with her,

When not cast out, to lands little known or far.

Such is the power of nature and ferocity of a river

That all mortals, unto their spines, must quiver.

By autumn, when monsoon clouds have fled,

The evening Sun’s now regularly pale-yellow-red.

The war seems over and peace restored

As her feeble waves sensually kiss the shores.

Placidly serene, dry leaves on her surface flow lazily,

 The silence is broken by barbs jumping up playfully. 

The rounded, polished stones and pebbles re-appear,

Like giant and tiny eggs, as water turns cold and clear.

Marks of fishes’ bites, like cascading crescents,

Show on wet stones, gathering algae- greenish lucent.

 Old shorelines make ways for silver narrow beaches,

On which children make sand-castles or screeches.

Oh! just forgot to tell, she is Ane* Kameng,

Daughter of the Himalayas, born near Gaurichen.
Upon whose valley, first descended the Sangno Abo

From Changam-Narba, the ancient lands of Tani Abo.

Many clans followed and today it is home to one and all.

And here, we learned to swim and fish as we were just small.

In this river many memories are immersed,

Folklores are woven and songs are versed.

She’ll continue to flow high and low,

So long does the Sun glow.

Even long after we all are gone,

She will flow from season to season.

[* Ane: Mother.   Sangno Abo: a Nyishi clan, descendent of Dolo (from Abo Tani).

Changam and Narba, places of resting, called ‘Doging’ in Nyishi, of migrating Tani tribes, believed to be somewhere in the bank of Tsangpo river in present day Tibet. Tani Abo: or Abo Tani, the mythical forefather of Tani tribes of Arunachal Pradesh.]