Sep 25, 2011

Madness of monsoon in autumn

কোন্ খেপা শ্রাবণ ছুটে এল আশ্বিনেরই আঙিনায়
Kon khyapa srabon chhutey elo

The madness of a monsoon storms
Into the courtyard of autumn
He rushes in locks all astray
Matted into clouds dark and gray
A song of maddened breeze he sings

A thrill runs through the fields
Dancing in delight to the tunes
Of Raag Chhayanaut
The golden rays of autumn sun
Recede in listless languor

What words did he come to whisper
To plentiful fields of paddy
A wail of which intense anguish
Emanates from the new harvest

Restless is the beclouded sky
Spreading its wings like Garuda
A lost wayfarer from the skies
Brings to earth a sense of the road

Sep 21, 2011

A relic of time I may be

পুরানো জানিয়া চেয়ো না
Purano janiya cheyona

A relic of time I may be
But please do spare more than
  just a side glance
    a distracted look of indolence

When I come to bequeath myself
Nothing there is wasted and worn
All that is old has been cast off

The waterfall succumbs
In bursting joy of sacrifice
Paying a new homage
In each and every cascade

Ever and on flower myrtle-bowers
To fill the forests with fragrance
Ever and on blossom the buds
To favour anew each moment

In your love I have found
A melody ever so new
In my thoughts in my work
I hear a charming tune

In my giving, there is no dearth
No end however much you take
A twinkle of an eye abounds
With treasures limitless

Who lives in my deepest heart?

কে গো অন্তরতর সে
Ke go ontorotoro she
(audio by Debabrata Biswas)

Who lives in my deepest heart?
Taps my awareness and my hurt?
Waves a magic wand in front of me?
Makes music with my being
joy, woe and ecstasy?

Who spins beauty 
in gold and silver, 
blue and green,
blends with the picture 
sweet,  unseen!

Days pass, decades fly 
the soul quietly steals my sigh.
Every day, a new face and name,
making myriad tides in my life.


Sep 19, 2011

Purify my life

আগুনের পরশমণি
Aguner poroshmoni (audio)

Purify my life
with the purging touch of fire
Purify my life
With your blessings of searing pain
Make it pure like the gold
That passes the test of fire

Take unto you my mortal form
Make it a lamp of your divine abode
Let the flame of my song glow through night and day

The slightest of your touch on the dark frame of night
Let it spark a new star one after another
To illuminate the darkness

Let my vision be cleansed from all darkness
Whither alights my gaze may it see the light
Let my pain be ablaze and rise above despair


*Another version by Anandamayee Majumdar:
(audio rendition of the English version)

Your flaming touch, let it blaze my heart
purify this life of mine
clarify this life of mine
simplify this life of mine
glorify this life of mine; atoning, as I burn.

Lift my soul, lift my heart, a blazing torch of light
glowing in the sky with stars that shimmer in the night.
Melody, let it sear, forever, as I burn

Impel my layers of dark, let your hands alight
kindling stars awake, evoking them with light.

May darkness disappear
from all my soul and sight
awaking senses with sanctifying light.
Agony, let it sear, forever, as I burn.

( *an attempt has been made to restore the  original rhythm to be able to sing this song in English as well)

Sep 13, 2011

Who sails across foreign seas

সকরুণ বেণু বাজায়ে কে যায়
Shokoruno benu bajaye ke jay
(audio)

Who sails across foreign seas
A maestro with her teary flute?
From distant shores her mellow tunes
Send ripples across this part of earth
Touching me like ocean-drift.

The winged strains bring with them
Farthest tears of a yearning soul,
Secrets of an unknown plight;
Music that rises from
Seas, sands, furtive winds,
Shadows enfolding, ensconcing woods.

Plunged far away from home I hear
So it seems, in my heart
Autumn's scores sweet and soft
In dew-drenched Bhairavi.

An image rises in the mind's eye
In strokes of lyrical, lighted brush;
Who goes there on the country road,
A maiden she is, with languid steps,
Her footfalls entrance the lonesome path
Her gentle way winds in arbors dark
There she goes, to fill her pot
With water from a village brook.

The deep of Your infinitude

তোমার অসীমে প্রাণমন লয়ে
Tomaro osheeme

When I dive into the deep of Your infinitude
With all my heart and soul
Sorrow there is none, nor death or separation

Death assumes its monstrosity
Sorrow carves its abyss
When I turn away from You
And get drawn to my wee self

O replete bounteousness!
That which finds refuge at Your feet
It exists never to fade
Without a trace of the fear
That only lurks in my mind
And so I lament through night and day

The weight of worldly duties
The torturous angst within
Dissolve in the blink of an eye
If your presence I can house
In my life's abode

Sep 12, 2011

The morning rays strum heartrending notes of farewell

সকালবেলার আলোয় বাজে বিদায়ব্যথার ভৈরবী

Shokalbelar aloy baje biday byathar bhoirobi

The morning rays strum
Heartrending notes of farewell
In melodic Bhairavi.
You too come with your flute,
Soulful muse. Let time preserve your songs
Of an ardent pining breeze.
Allow your music to linger
In dawns chilled with dew,
To hover with Shiuli perfumes.
When it happens
You may have left, but let it be.

Such serene sunrise,
Horizons painted in gold
Beautiful with blossoms of Kunda
Will impress once more.

Once more
A semblance of this image
Will emerge from sweet, sombre shadows
Mellowed with pigeons' prattles,
And lovely green tenderness.
This portrait, reminiscently resonant
With ankle bells of the dancing songs
You left behind

Sep 11, 2011

As the autumn sun caresses my dreams

আজি শরততপনে প্রভাতস্বপনে
Aaji shorot topone probhat swapone

As the autumn sun caresses my dreams
I wish I knew what my heart wants
On fragrant boughs of the Shefali tree
What do telltale birds tattle on?

Distracted today is this heart of mine
In a breeze so soft and soothing
Refusing to remain within four walls
In hot pursuit of which fragrance
In hope of sighting which flower
It races to which far beyond

Someone there is amiss today
And so my life, it seems in vain
In askance my heart looks around
“It is not her”, crying aloud
In which land of dreams does she dwell
Her lustrous tresses aflutter
In Eden of which heavenly abode
Maybe she weeps because of me
Seared by pangs of separation

If I do wreathe a song
Sing for whom this lyric?
If I do wreathe some flowers
Give to whom this garland?
If I were to offer my life
At whose feet surrender?
Forever a fear lurks within
In my callous carelessness lest
Aches a heart hurting in private

Sep 10, 2011

Dispersed have clouds

আজি মেঘ কেটে গেছে সকালবেলায়
Aaji megh kete gechhe shokal belay

The clouds have dispersed since morning
Come, come now, show your smiling face
Join my play of leisurely laze

Dreams amassed with many a hope
Through many a disappointment
In each heartbreak of youth
I’ll cast them off
On the ebbing river afloat
Towards a shoreless unknown

Unstring our bonds of joy and woe
For just a little while we will
Remain oblivious to our selves

The song that eluded my voice
The gifts that eluded my grasp
All those regrets on eastern breeze
I’ll cast off in careless neglect

Sep 9, 2011

The image I had so long meant to come by

যে ছায়ারে ধরব বলে করেছিলেম পণ
Je chhayare dhorbo bole

The image I had so long meant to come by,
In her turn, now embraces my fetters of melody.
Her touch, like the fleeting play of clouds in Autumn
Dissolves into a pure blue sky
Yet now somewhere deep
     I hear her ankle bells chime with my music.
With slow drifts caressing my lazy, sweet hours
Her fragrance would permeate our secret
                              Meetings and farewells.
Today at length I find my own tunes
Resonating with the notes of Autumn
                  In a cadence of Chhayanaut
When she, with her rhythmic dancing jingles
Blends her presence into the soulful symphony.

Sep 5, 2011

Luminescence flowers

আলোর অমল কমলখানি 
Alor amolo kamolokhani (audio: Debabrata Biswas)

Luminescence flowers
Like a limpid lotus,
Enlivening a blue sky.
I am charged with
The wonder of it.

In tantamount mystery
My thoughts 
Swarm like honeybees
Setting out
To touch the radiant blossom

I listen to an autumn melody
Vibrate 
In the lotus-pond,
A tuneful Lalit
Weep underneath the Shiuli

A breeze, bewitched
With the same drunkenness
Roves through rice meadows,
Glistening with green luxuriance

A passionate whisper
Hums in the forest.
Riddling me with its sensation

Blossoms of Shiuli

শিউলি ফুল, শিউলি ফুল
Shiuli phul, Shiuli phul (audio)

Blossom of Shiuli,  
My beloved blossom,
What an oversight 
Was this on your part?
Oh, what illusion did the night breeze
Have in mind, to nestle you gently
At the foot of arbor-shades?
Yet ever so often
You die to return at the strike of dawn;
Why do you pine, my unmindful love?
Dew glistens in your eyes.
Is this your way of bidding goodbye,
Is this what your fragrance suggests?
Oh, with you, every passing moment,
Bokul blossoms too, flock to part.

Sep 4, 2011

Autumn, your gift of sunshine

শরৎ তোমার অরুণ আলোর অঞ্জলি
Shorot tomar orun alor onjoli (audio)

Autumn, your gift of sunshine
Overflows your hands
Joined in auspicious offering,
Floods creation

Autumn, your tresses 
Wet with dew,
Your veil, brushing trees,
Bewitch the dawn.

Jewels of dew etched in your armlet
Glisten with green

Shadows of the forest speak
In hums, whispers
Flapping scarfs in their sonorous dance

Thrilled enchantment
Descends upon the Shiuli.

All night I had rested

সারা নিশি ছিলেম শুয়ে 
Shara nishi chhilem shuye

All night I had rested
On solitary earth
Next to my beloved wild flowers,
Eagerly listening to the music
Of the stars. But at dawn,
When the stars were lost
I was overwhelmed to find
The same melody overflowing
From the dew, the flowers' tearful faces.

How long have I looked
For this tune in princely chambers,
To have found it at last
On the humble soil of earth!

This melody came to me
As the eloquence of light
Wafting down from the sky
Into the green grass.
This music sparkles like laughter
Twinkling from jewels of dew
Nestled lovingly in the earth.

Sep 1, 2011

You hide your form in a sparse garb

একি মায়া, লুকাও কায়া
Eki maya lukao kaya (audio)

Is this a disguise, a delusion?
You hide your form in a garb so sparse
The denuded look of winter
To see you thus I can no more
My soul cannot endure it so

Can you be so aloof?
Miserly in your expression
Amidst your own world

The forests, their lute now silent
Won’t you gift them with your music
A wail rends the heart of azure
Wafting on the autumn breeze

Why do you while your time
On the edges of the desert
You who are treasurer of sweet nectar
Where hidden are your riches of beauty

On your bare branches shorn of leaves
A bird there is to sing no more
An empty assembly
The sound of silence
Our hearts cry out in shame