• Parabaas
    Parabaas : পরবাস : বাংলা ভাষা, সাহিত্য ও সংস্কৃতি
  • পরবাস | Translation | Poem
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  • Khichuri : Sukumar Ray
    translated from Bengali to English by Prasenjit Gupta

    Was a duck, porcupine (to grammar I bow not)
    Became Duckupine, but how I know not.

    Stork tells turtle, “Indeed it’s a delight--
    Our Stortle shape is exactly right!”

    Parrot-Head Lizard feels decidedly silly:
    Must he spurn all bugs for a raw green chili?

    The goat now hatches a plan to wed--
    Mounts scorpion’s neck--body unites with head!

    The giraffe’s reluctant to wander nearby
    With his grasshopper wings, he longs to fly.

    Says the cow, “What disease has entered the pen
    That my rear belongs to a rascally hen?”

    Observe the Whalephant: whale wants the sea;
    Elephant says, “It’s the jungle for you and me.”

    The lion has no horns, that’s his woe--
    He joins with a deer; and now antlers grow!

    © 2003 by Prasenjit Gupta



    Khichuri: a common dish all over India and among the Indian diaspora, a flavorful mixture of rice and dal cooked with spices; also used figuratively to mean a hodgepodge or mixture. The Anglicized spelling was kedgeree.








    Translation Published March 15, 2003



    অলংকরণ (Artwork) : Sukumar Ray

    Tags: Abol-Tabol; Sukumar Ray; Parabaas Translation
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