INSTINCTS #23: ‘Quantic Chance’ by Sultana Raza (2/3)

Continuing on with our featured poet this month, please enjoy Sultana Raza’s second piece, ‘Quantic Chance’.

And if you missed her first poem last week, you can catch up here:

#22: ‘Inter-dimensional Classified Ad’ by Sultana Raza (June 10th, 2021)

QUANTIC CHANCE

The young guy
found all the alphabets
related to his needs
to solve
the enigma of the chalance¹

engraved on the back of the seat of the bus
that he took by bad luck
after having missed his train

due to his clumsy teacher
who mixed up all the papers
into an impossible mess.

And he even succeeded
in avoiding to fall into
the long, supple, and sinuous nets
of the girl with the large brown eyes

with quite a bit of difficulty, certainly,
but that was only
because of his hope
to attain the higher level.

But there, suddenly,
before him,
were in reverse
the missing alphabets
of the axis
of the calculation of the graph

leading him towards
the depths of the theorem
of the shamans for a life
naturally short

so that his death would plunge him
directly
into the seventh dimension
where his next master is waiting for him
impatiently.

How could he
finance his project
to go till
the middle of the desert
of Mongolia, faraway
once the calculation would be finished?

Glossary:

¹guessing game; this word was invented by the poet, and means a particular game of chance, or luck, shaped like a mandala or a colourful decorative wheel outlined on the floor.

~~Original French Version~~

HASARD QUANTIQUE

Le jeune
trouve tous les alphabets
relatifs à ses besoins
pour résoudre
l’énigme de la chalance¹

gravée au dos du siège du bus
qu’il a pris par malchance
après avoir raté son train

à cause du prof maladroit
qui a mélangé tous les papiers
dans un désordre impossible.

Et il a même réussi
à éviter de tomber dans les filets
longs, souples et sinueux
de la fille aux grands yeux bruns,

avec pas mal de difficultés, certes,
mais c’était seulement
à cause de son espoir
d’atteindre le niveau supérieur.

Mais là, soudain,
devant lui,
étaient à l’envers
les alphabets manquants
de l’axe
du calcul du graphique

l’entraînant vers
le les fonds du théorème
des chamanes pour une vie
naturellement courte

dont son décès le plongera
directement
dans la septième dimension,
où l’attend son prochain maître
avec impatience.

Comment pourrait-t-il
financer son projet
d’aller jusqu’au
fond du désert
de Mongolie, en terre lointaine,
une fois le calcul terminé?

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Sultana Raza has an MA in English Literature. Her creative non-fiction has appeared in Literary Ladies Guides, Literary Yard, countercurrents.org, Litro, impspired, pendemic.ie, Gnarled Oak, Kashmir Times, and A Beautiful Space. Her 100+ articles (on art, theatre, film, and humanitarian issues) have appeared in English and French. An independent scholar, Sultana Raza has presented many papers related to Romanticism (Keats) and Fantasy (Tolkien) in international conferences in the USA, Ireland, the UK, France, Greece, Norway, and CoNZealand (online).

Of Indian origin, Sultana Raza’s poems have appeared in numerous journals, including Columbia Journal, The New Verse News, London Grip, Classical Poetry Society, spillwords, Poetry24, Dissident Voice, and The Peacock Journal. Her fiction has received an Honorable Mention in Glimmer Train Review, and has been published in Setu, Coldnoon Journal, Szirine, aperture, Entropy, and ensemble (in French). She has read her fiction/poems in India, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg, England, Ireland, the US, and at CoNZealand.

https://www.facebook.com/sultana.raza.7
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIYp4lvMGcTKI4xWtIdQpbw

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Featured Photo by Ravi Kant from Pexels

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