• Parabaas
    Parabaas : পরবাস : বাংলা ভাষা, সাহিত্য ও সংস্কৃতি
  • পরবাস | Shakti Chattopadhyay | Poem
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  • The Returned : Shakti Chattopadhyay
    translated from Bengali to English by Sutapa Chaudhuri

    The Returned
    (প্রত্যাবর্তিত)


    I march to the battle of the unarmed     my weapon is my mind.
    My father’s eyes are full of darkness, the milk of the sun-plant
    Runs down my mother’s cheek, metallic mirror
    Make me a murderer, pierce a sharp thorn
    In my eyes    and slice my tongue with Akrur’s arrow
    Let me kill ny child, give him to me.

    My mind is a weapon, darkness only a hindrance
    On its hard heart I’ll strike a wake-up note
    Numb grow my limbs and crying is harder
    Then darkness awoke and said, Go, return now.

    The dawn glitters like a gem on the hood of a python,
    My tired warrior return now, back to your own home
    Your mother is now crystal water, your father’s a glowworm,
    A jungle babbler wails alone in the dust of your broken home.

    The eyes of the stars are dark    the sky a burnt bowl of clay
    Fortune is black as the crow’s body, the food of hunger is decay.

    The original poem 'The Returned' (প্রত্যাবর্তিত) is collected in Shakti's first book of poems 'He Prem, He Noi:shabdo' (হে প্রেম, হে নৈঃশব্দ) published in March 1961 by Granthajagat (গ্রন্থজগৎ), Kolkata.
    Parabaas, April 2017
    Illustrated by Pritha Kundu.
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