Friday, May 30, 2014

জাতিস্মর, কবীর সুমন/ Jatismar, Kabir Suman




http://tilak.6te.net/images/poetries/Jatismwar.pdf

No hope of immortality, no demands of any kind,
Seeking you the only thing that gives meaning to this mortal life.
Moments pass for the eternally blind seer
The lost memories of life gone by, let them be forgotten
the wind sighs through pages torn from the past
Seeking you the only thing that gives meaning to this mortal life.

Upon a cobra's hood Lakhindar's memories dance,
Behula will never be widowed, this is the way of Bengal,
The raft floats on between darkness and light, carrying the same corpse,
I have died before and will do it again, pledging love upon my lips.

I was born many times, and died in your arms
The only thing that kept me here was the need to see you again,
We come back over and over drawn by this earth's cry,
Heard in the waves of the  Gangur, Kopai and the Kapotakkho rivers.
Sometimes the Gangur becomes the Cauvery, sometimes the mighty Mississippi,
At other times she sings the tunes heard on the Congo or down the Rhine,
I have never been one to write down tunes, I still remain that way
All I ask is to hear your name in the songs that the masses sing.

I wanted you when many lives ago,
The Buddha's loneliness coloured the setting sun,
His mercy made you seek the truth on your own,
I too became a seeker and we met upon the field,
I was down on my knees as I still remain
Be the alms that I seek from my dreams be soothing to my eyes,
Let me crush your lips with mine as we trap the poem of love
I pledge upon my love and the rebellion in my heart, I only want you.

You came to life many times dreaming of me,
I was the one who was your desire, your revolution, your scream,
Every time that you suffered pain, know that you have received me,
I am your man, the land of your birth.

Every time you became a mother, I fathered the child,
Our funeral pyres have been lit by all our children my darling,
We come again and again, we go back when life is done,
I will come again, I will cry out aloud, I want only you.



Sunday, May 25, 2014

মালতীবালা বালিকা বিদ্যালয়, জয় গোস্বামী, Malatibala Girls School, Joy Goswami



মালতীবালা বালিকা বিদ্যালয়
জয় গোস্বামী

বেণীমাধব, বেণীমাধব এতদিনের পরে
সত্যি বল সেসব কথা এখনও মনে পড়ে?
সেসব কথা বলেছ তুমি তোমার প্রেমিকাকে?
আমি কেবল একটি দিন তোমার পাশে তাকে
দেখেছিলাম আলোর নীচে; অপূর্ব সে আলো
স্বীকার করি, দুজনকেই মানিয়েছিল ভাল
জুড়িয়ে দিল চোখ আমার, পুড়িয়ে দিল চোখ
বাড়ি এসে বলেছিলাম, ওদের ভাল হোক

রাতে এখন ঘুমতে যাই একতলার ঘরে
মেঝের উপর বিছানা পাতা, জ্যোৎস্না এসে পড়ে
আমার পরে যে বোন ছিল, চোরাপথের বাঁকে
মিলিয়ে গেছে, জানি না আজ কার সঙ্গে থাকে
আজ জুটেছে, কাল কি হবে, কালের ঘরে শনি
আমি এখন পাড়ায় সেলাই দিদিমণি
তবু আগুন, বেণীমাধব, আগুন জ্বলে কই
কেমন হবে, আমিও যদি নষ্ট মেয়ে হই? 

***

Malatibala Girls School
Joy Goswami (An Extract)

Benimadhab, Benimadhab after all this time
Tell me the truth, do you remember anything that happened?
Have you told your girlfriend about those days?
I saw you two together just that one time
Under the street lights; surreal their glow
I must say, you two looked good together
It filled my heart, it scarred my eyes
At home I said, may they have everything they want.

Now I sleep in the downstairs room
on a bed spread out on the moonlit floor
Remember that sister who was younger than me?
She has long vanished in quicksand, who the hell knows where she is
Today I have food, but who knows what tomorrow brings
I am now the seamstress of the local para
Still no flames, Benimadhab, when will the fires burn?
How would it be if I too found the wrong way out of this?

Thursday, May 22, 2014

আনন্দ ভৈরবী, শক্তি চট্টোপাধ্যায়/ Ananda Bhairavi, Shakti Chattopadhyay





Ananda Bhairavi

Today the frame hangs akew in that room
It was not like this at the end of a day of rain
The garden was filled with rain bruised bloom
Ananda Bhairavi.

Today the cowherd no longer comes to the field
Nor strains of flute rise about banyan trunk
The rain still erupts, ploughing clouds
with furrows of lightning.

Did he not know that this is how calamity
pounces upon the red cock's comb?
Did he not know it is a waste of heart
miserly gift from the unused hand?

Did he not know that the fanfare of the city
far exceeds the size of this heart?
Did he not know, how much I know him
from fingertips to distant sea?

Today the frame hangs akew in that room
It was not like this at the end of a day of rain
The garden was filled with rain bruised bloom
Ananda Bhairavi.

Shakti Chattopadhyay
(Translation, mine)

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

ঝাউয়ের ডাকে তখন হঠাৎ মনে আমার পড়ল কাকে রাত্রিবেলা




ঝাউয়ের ডাকে
শক্তি চট্টোপাধ্যায়

ঝাউয়ের ডাকে তখন হঠাৎ মনে আমার পড়ল কাকে রাত্রিবেলা?
উপকূলের সঙ্গে চলে স্রোতের খেলা,
সাঁতার কাটে স্রোতের জলে চাঁদের নরম দুখানি হাত,
লাইঠাউস দেখায় আলো দূর গগনের জলপ্রপাত,
গত বছর এসেছিলাম, বুকের মধ্যে বেসেছিলাম তোমায় ভাল্‌
এখন সন্ধ্যা হয়েছে ঘর,
কেবল মেঘে, মেঘে, মেঘেই দিন ফুরালো...

এখন নিথর রাত্রিবেলা,
জলের ধারে কেবলই হয় জলের খেল্‌
অবর্তমান তোমার হাসি ঝাউয়ের ফাঁকে,
আমায় গভীর রাত্রি ডাকে...
ও নিরুপম, ও নিরুপম, ও নিরুপম...


In the call of the casuarina

Who was it I remembered in the rustling of the casuarinas in the night?
The waves play a game with the shore.
The moon swims, parting the water with her gentle arms
The distant sky like falling water, under the searching gaze of the lighthouse.
Last year we were here, in my heart I had even loved you,
Now the room is filled with twilight,
The day ages faster in the company of clouds.

Now it is deep in the night
The water plays alone by the waterside.
Your smile hides no longer among the casuarinas
The dark night keeps calling me,

Nirupam, Nirupam, Nirupam.

Shakti Chattopadhyay