Jun 28, 2013

My sentimental pride

আমার অভিমানের বদলে আজ
Amar obhimaner bodole

I will take your garland today
In place of my sentimental pride
Today by the end of night
Let me end my tearful daze

I cast off my hardened heart by the wayside
May your feet grace it with a soft touch
And melt that stone

I was engulfed in darkness
You took off its shroud
Your love came like a fire
And illumined it in brightness

The self of mine that to me was so dear
I will empty it all and offer it to you

I won’t pray to you for peace

তোমার কাছে শান্তি চাব না
Tomar kaachhe shanti chabona

I won’t pray to you for peace
Let them stay, my worry and pain

On this, my swing of disquiet
Alight in all your glorious play
I wish to rock you to and fro

Let the wind put out the lamp
Let the storm unfurl its flag
In that darkness I will seek
The touch of your feet
Against my heart

Do you have still more arrows in your quiver?

ও নিঠুর, আরো কি বাণ তোমার তূণে আছে
O nithur, aaro ki baan tomar trine aachhe

O ruthless One
Do you have still more arrows in your quiver?
To pierce me where it hurts, in my bosom

I run and flee, I shut my eyes, I veil my face
Lest I get hurt somewhere someplace
Because I fear your lashing so
My heart is thus ablaze in pain

The day it is I lose my fear
Exhaust will all your arrows
Breathe will life having welcomed death

How can you overcome pain

দুঃখ যদি না পাবে তো
Dukkho jodi na paabe to

How can you overcome pain if you avoid it
Isn’t the antidote to venom, venom itself

Let ablaze be the fire
Be not the slightest afraid
When it is reduced to cinder
It can never be kindled again

Do not flee skirting around it
Do not shy away from being taken captive

The farther you run
The more pain you get

Finish off death itself
With your dying breath
Then will life come
And take its own place

When I hurt you

যখন তোমায় আঘাত করি
Jokhon tomay aghat kori

When I hurt you, then it is I get to know you
When I oppose you, then it is you win me over

The more I plunder your wealth for myself
The more I find myself in your debt

When I push upstream in pride and joy
I feel the force of your flow on my bosom

When I let the light in my room flicker off
In inert indolence
Your night sky lights up a thousand stars

Jun 27, 2013

I feel empty


শূন্য হাতে ফিরি, হে নাথ, পথে পথে 
Shunyo haate phiri, he nath, pothe pothe (audio: Suchitra Mitra)

I feel empty, drifting,
begging, at many doors.
My heart thirsts for some strange thing.
My spirit refuses to be quenched,
my hunger seethes within.
I squander little profits
I drown in a deluge of tears.

Seekers have gained on me
the sun dips in the horizon.
Darkness sets in
crowds scatter into silence.

I wonder, how many roads
I need to walk down
to arrive at a golden home
by the shore.
Till then I embed my yearnings
on the pathway.

Jun 5, 2013

The heart you flail with flowers

পুষ্প দিয়ে মার যারে
Pushpo diye maro jare (audio: Debabrata Biswas)

The heart you flail with flowers
May never know the face of death
The assailed, in stead, will stumble,
Fall and embrace your feet

What has the injured got to fear
If, beneath an endless chasm
She discovers your irrevocable arms?

The one cocooned in comfort
Confuses insult with pleasure,
Shame with beauty.
How can she discover bliss, revealed
Through your unbidden destruction?

The one who lives by a bed of roses,
How will she taste the ethereal nectar
Of her own tears,
How will she arrive
At the rock-bottom shelter of your feet?