• Parabaas
    Parabaas : পরবাস : বাংলা ভাষা, সাহিত্য ও সংস্কৃতি
  • পরবাস | Translation | Poem
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  • Ephemeral : Sunil Gangopadhyay
    translated from Bengali to English by Sheila Sengupta
    Neera, sometimes, it seems
    you are more distant
    than even the day I was born.
    You walk alone --
    in the autumn-woods.
    The rustle of leaves
    under your tender feet,
    fill the air!
    The mountains, sloped like a bullock's neck
    meet the horizon,
    and the evening sun
    resounding its victory-cymbals
    sets behind those hills.
    All these, Neera, seem more distant
    than even the day I was born.

    Sometimes, when I've looked at the sky,
    I've seen a dying star.
    I feel a shiver in my heart,
    my eyes come down to the earth
    and to the world all around.
    At those times, Neera,
    I feel a strong desire
    to fight all that is born to die!
    I wish to place the flag of the Heavens
    in your almond-hued palm,
    and tell the whole world,
    that the ray of mystical light
    falling on your chin,
    shall stay arrested, forever.
    At that moment,
    in the distant leafstrewn woods,
    I see your enigmatic smile!

    You know Neera,
    that the white pigeons that fly in the evening sky,
    even they are obscured by darkness!
    like the light of our eyes,
    and like all worldly sorrows!
    It's only the misery of man
    that stretches beyond his lifetime.


    Published in Parabaas May 2, 2002


    The original poem [nashwar] appeared in the collection of poems aamaar swapna*, first published in the Bengali year 1379 (ca.~ 1973). This translation is reprinted, with permission, from Murmur in the Woods.

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