Jan 26, 2011

Time to leave, yet

আমার যাবার বেলায় পিছু ডাকে
amar jabar belay pichhu daake

Time to leave, yet the first rays of sun
Beckon through frayed clouds
Pressing me to return
A sombre bird of monsoon
Implores that I turn
From her secret, wild hideout
A swelling stream hastens along
Below a penumbra of branches;
Who does she seek, as she calls back?
Who, in my heart, ever so often
Ushers back the distant, dewy pilgrim
On his pensive, parting dawn?

Jan 22, 2011

So long as you hold me back

যতখন তুমি আমায়
Jotokhon tumi amay

So long as you hold me back
Lingering I remain at the outhouse
Spending my hours immersed in songs
Awaiting that fair moment
When I am called in and then
Perhaps this music will serve its end
Amidst your gallery of colourful tunes.
The spring blossoms, Bokul and Champa
And Keya, the monsoon flower
Reveal to me the notes
Of your kind of music.
Passionate soul raised to sky
I create my scores on the lute
In an effort to match your very strains
Of dusk and dawn

When my song reveals the world

গানের ভিতর দিয়ে
Gaaner bhitor diye (audio)

When I gaze at the world
Through a lyrical lens
I then sense her voice
I then grasp her soul.

I then hear her articulate
With a diction of light,
A radiance which brims the sky with love.
Her little missives 
Lilting from the smallest grain of dust
Startle me with their intensity.

From skin-deep images
She seeps into my heart.
My soul then starts to nod and quiver 
With every blade of grass.

Sweetened with soulful emotion
The rigidness melts away from every picture.
I find myself sharing secrets
With every beating heart.

another translation by Anandamayee meant for English rendition - find link to rendition here:

When my song reveals the world in its melody

the earth opens her heart, I then begin to see.

Sunshine in the sky, words of love flying high,
then I hear the grains of soil speak tenderly.

The world finds its way into my heart when this happens to me.
My heart responds and flickers with grass in an earthly glee.

Forms and figures melt in without borders gracefully,
then I find my heart speak with all and everybody.


My heart, heart of mine

 ওরে আমার হৃদয় আমার
Ore amar hridoy amar

My heart, heart of mine
Whoever set you adrift at dawn
A beacon in melody-streams
Do not lose your way
Getting wedged at dry banks
Nor let seaweeds impede you
There, the shore stands still
Keeping hearth's candle
Aglow in even shine
But you, a lamp in lyrical river
Will cruise toward non-shores
And dance to the beat of restless waves

Jan 17, 2011

I know to you is not unknown

 জানি তোমার অজানা নাহি গো
jani tomar ojana nahi go (audio: Debabrata Biswas)

I know to you is not unknown
What it is that lurks in my mind
I want to keep it a secret
Revealed it is in my two eyes

Lest I say what I do not mean
I keep away, afar I go
I bide my time on the wayside
Do come and see in my two eyes
What it is that lurks in my mind

Encircled is my room of prayer
In dense darkness of night endless
Pierce that very darkness
With the lightning spark of your smile

My solitary day and night
I spend threading rosary beads
Unmindfully I sing a song
Oh do come now and then,
Do hear and sense
What it is that lurks in my mind



Another version by Anandamayee Majumdar:

I know nothing is veiled from you
About the secrets of my heart.
Even as I try to hold back
Your eyes take in every hint.

Afraid to bare my soul,
Afraid to falter feverishly,
I amble away on my path.
You take in every hint,
About the secrets of my heart.

I cherish my hidden altar
In an endless, inky silence.
But your pealing laughter
Ruthlessly shatters my facade.

Every waking moment
I spend in contemplation,
Welding your thoughts
In my solitude,
Breathing life into them,
Singing absently.
You take in every hint,
About the secrets of my heart.




Jan 4, 2011

This I do want you to recall

এই কথাটি মনে রেখো
ei kothati mone rekho

This I do want you to recall
Amidst this your laughter and play
That I had sung a song
When time it was
For withered leaves to fall away
Lying on dry grass,
Depleted of strength,
Lost in my own thoughts,
Uncared unheeded
That I had sung a song
When time it was
For withered leaves to fall away
You who travel in bright daylight
Do remember
Travel did I in darkness with
A lamp I lit at eventide
When I heard summons
From the other shore
Afloat was I on
A broken canoe
That I had sung a song
When time it was
For withered leaves to fall away

In pretence of pious prayer

তোমার পূজার ছলে তোমায় ভুলেই থাকি
tomar pujar chholey tomay bhulei thaki

In pretence of pious prayer
I remain oblivious of You
I fail to grasp when You slip away

I find not a way to Your feet
From behind the floral garlands
Luminous lamps, fragrant fumes

I conceal You in a veil of hymns

I make false fanfare to see You
When my own eyes thirst for a glimpse
Crying out to You in distress

What need have I of the temple
A place I will make
In one corner of my own heart
In simplicity and silence
I will call out to You.

- 28th March 1917